A working group, originally set up by BIS, is recommending incentives for Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) for WEEE. The IPR working group has recommended that BIS consider a system that favours producers who manufacture products that are easy to recycle. The reportWEEE Regulations Individual Producer Responsibility in a UK Context is in line with the argument that an Individual Producer Responsibility approach – where producers are responsible for financing or treating their own products when they become waste – would encourage producers to design products that are easier to recycle. The current system in the UK sees producers of B2C products collectively responsible for the cost of collecting and treating WEEE that is collected for recycling, with each producer required to finance the treatment of WEEE equivalent to their share of the market. Critics say that by using this system, manufacturers are unlikely to see the financial benefit of designing products that are easy to recycle. The preferred option put forward in the report is to implement a design for recycling and reuse (DfRR) weighting mechanism, which would see a producer’s obligated WEEE collection tonnage increased or decreased based on the cost of treatment and characteristics of products that it places on the market. David Burton, Project Director of B2B Compliance,welcomed the report “IPR is a challenging concept when, largely, the system is geared up for high volume and only some sectors, such as IT, lend themselves more easily to an ‘asset management’ approach. In addition, the favouring of a ‘return share’ system giving producers the option to operate their own direct take back activities for household WEEE, could allow greater flexibility for sectors or individual producers that wish to take this approach as long as there are safeguards to ensure that the proper collection and recycling takes place”. A BIS spokesman responded to the report “BIS welcomes the IPR report – its content and recommendations will form part of our wider evidence base that will lead to development of proposals for revised WEEE regulations effective from 2014.”