WEEE update: Government confirm mandatory Producer Balancing System (PBS) method
Following a consultation released earlier this year for determining the methodology to administer the Producer Compliance Scheme Balancing System (PBS), The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) announced on 19 July that they have selected the WEEE Scheme Forum’s (WSF) proposal
You can read further details about both proposals put forward to government in our news story HERE
From 1 January 2019, an amendment to the WEEE Regulations set out a requirement for all Producer Compliance Schemes to join the Government-approved Producer Balancing System (PBS).
Such a mandatory system has been introduced to ensure that the cost of collecting WEEE at the request of local authorities is shared amongst all Compliance Schemes (a Regulation 34 request states that a Scheme has to collect WEEE from a local authority site within 5 working days covering all the associated collection and treatment costs).
Prior to this announcement, membership of the PBS was voluntary so not all producer compliance schemes took part. The new mandatory system takes effect immediately and schemes have until 18 August 2019 to join. Amendments to the WEEE Regulations also state that the PBS will be reviewed every 3 years by DEFRA, at which point they will also be required to select a new method.
In a statement, WSF said: “The WEEE Scheme Forum is delighted that Defra has approved and appointed WEEE Schemes Forum (WSF) Ltd.’s PCS Balancing System (PBS)…The WSF voluntary PBS was set up in 2016. It has successfully handled over 90 regulation 34 WEEE stream requests, and most PCSs are already members of the WSF PBS.
“Anthesis will continue to act as the independent administrator of the new mandatory PBS. They will shortly be in contact with all PCSs approved for household WEEE, with details of the new system.”
Impact
In order to comply with the WEEE Regulations, obligated producers placing over 5 tonnes of B2C EEE on the market per year are required to fund the collection and treatment of B2C WEEE and therefore, collections of WEEE via the mandatory PBS will be funded by these B2C producers via their compliance scheme. As always, the team at Comply Direct are working hard to ensure that the cost of compliance is competitive for members.
Further information on the tender and consultation process is available at: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/approvalofpbsproposal/
If you have WEEE to be recycled and collected from your business, we facilitate nationwide waste collections, so you can request a collection quote using our online form HERE