DEFRA have recently released their consultation on Open Scope which will run until Friday 8th December. This can be found at here “Consultation on the proposed amendments to the 2013 WEEE Regulations”.
For those unfamiliar, as part of the recast WEEE Directive, the 2013 WEEE regulations put in place requirements to move to an “open scope” position from 1 January 2019. This will mean that all electrical and electronic equipment will be in scope of the regulations unless specifically excluded. Also, as currently writing the regulations will require reporting to move from 14 down to six consolidated categories.
Consultation options
The government have published their consultation and impact assessment and considering the following options:
- Do nothing – Allow the existing WEEE Regulations to take effect, with the requirement to categorise and report EEE and WEEE in the 6 revised categories.
- Amend the 2013 WEEE Regulations to retain the current system of 14 categories with new flexibility to allocate products previously out of scope to one of the 14 categories. (preferred option)
- Amend the 2013 WEEE Regulations to move to the 6 categories, but utilising three additional sub-categories
It is important to note that the consultation and cost assessments are primarily focused on B2C producers and do not consider impacts of traditional B2B products which will come into scope. Due to dual use (where EEE can be used in both household and non-household contexts, the EEE will be considered B2C) there is likely to be a vast redistribution of B2C market share which may not be fully appreciated in the consultation.
Feedback into consultation
Whilst we will be working with GAMBICA to formulate a response we believe it is important that DEFRA receive responses from Producers, across industries. The consultation is made up of questions outlining preferences, which can be found at the following link “UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 – Consultation on proposed amendments”. To provide your feedback, you can either respond directly through the consultation portal (deadline 07/12/17) or send us a completed copy of the pdf found at the above link (deadline 30/11/17) which we can consolidate responses to feed into our scheme response.
How do you feel about these changes? How will Open Scope impact your business? If you have any concerns, please give us a call on 0845 680 9829 and we can discuss what the changes will mean for you.