In the current climate, when everyone is looking for ways to reduce spending, local authorities face extra challenges.
Valpak’s proposal for the first WEEE reuse evidence uplift aims to build a financial mechanism that supports local authorities as we push for tougher environmental targets.
The WEEE compliance fee is in place to fill the gap when targets are missed, and provides crucial funding to projects that aim to improve the UK’s WEEE system. WEEE compliance fee methodologies have always included an incentive for schemes to fund collections on behalf of local authority partners, but in Valpak’s proposal this year, we also included the first WEEE reuse evidence uplift.
The uplift is an economic driver that would encourage schemes to invest in reuse in order to lower their compliance fee. While schemes with the greatest shortfall pay a higher fee, local authorities benefit from a cost-neutral scheme to support them in collecting more WEEE for reuse.
Reuse sits above recycling in the waste hierarchy. However, performance on WEEE reuse trails behind recycling figures – of almost 236,375 tonnes of household WEEE collected in the first six months of 2022, just 2.74 per cent was sent for reuse.
As well as the waste reduction benefits, reuse brings wider environmental and social advantages. For example, the 16,000 tonnes of televisions reused each year avoid 156,000 tonnes of CO2-eq, and benefit households by almost £500 million .*
Charities and social enterprises also rely on income from reuse to support their work. Many work in partnership with local authorities. In December 2021, Valpak partnered with Glasgow City Council to organise a reuse event in aid of Starter Packs, a local charity which helps people who are moving on from homelessness. More than 100 waste electrical items were saved from landfill.
This year, as we introduce the reuse initiative, we have opted to limit the value. While Valpak felt it was important to introduce the concept and lay out our plans for future methodologies, we are mindful that producers and schemes will have little time to plan. So, while we have chosen not to increase costs punitively at this stage, we are clear that this is a phased approach that will play a greater part in our compliance fee methodology in the future.
Defra will announce the chosen WEEE compliance fee methodology in February. Through the upcoming government response to the consultation on WEEE reform, legislation is likely to mirror our view – reuse must play a more central role in a strategy for WEEE. For local authorities, which oversee the majority of WEEE collection, and already face challenges through reforms such as consistent collections, it is crucial that any new demands are funded through economic levers that support councils. It will take time to bring the system into full operation, but the introduction of a clear mechanism into the compliance fee methodology is the first, significant, step.
*WRAP: Benefits of Reuse. Case Study: Electrical Items
