Dual use WEEE ruling goes live

The Environment Agency has told WEEE reprocessors and producer compliance schemes to ensure that any dual use WEEE is now counted as ‘consumer WEEE’. This is in line with the Department for Business Innovation and Skills revised ruling on classifications.

Definitions of household and non-household WEEE were amended in October after the UK’s classification of household and business WEEE was found to be at odds with that held by the European Commission.

The difference centred on the interpretation of dual use WEEE, which includes items such as PCs or television screens, which could conceivably be used in business or by consumers. In the UK, the definition was also qualified by the quantity of WEEE being presented for collection.

The new definition is in line with that held by the European Commission and states that any WEEE of a similar nature to that presented to householders, regardless of how much is presented, should be classed as household WEEE.

BIS has said this will apply for producers placing new items on the market from Jan 2015, but in a note to schemes last week it said the ruling will be applied with immediate effect.

When the new definition applies from 2015, it is expected that producers who are currently placing new products onto the market classed as business EEE, but whose products could be deemed as dual use, would have to classify these products as B2C.

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