The WEEE Fund allocates £3.5m to boost small WEEE collections

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Fund distributes money collected through the WEEE compliance fee, an alternative form of compliance for schemes who are unable to procure enough WEEE recycling evidence to fulfil their obligations.

The purpose of the compliance fee is to prevent schemes being forced to buy surplus evidence from each other at inflated prices, with the WEEE compliance fee instead creating a central pot of money that can be awarded to initiatives that directly promote the collection of WEEE.

Since launching in 2017 the fund has generated over £10 million to support increased recycling and reuse of waste electricals in the UK, with £3.3 million collected in 2018 alone.

Kerbside and reuse boost

This month £3.5 million has been allocated by the WEEE Fund to boost funding for two key aspects of collecting small WEEE across the UK, kerbside and reuse. Small WEEE is being focused on as it often ends up in general waste and is not collected or recycled correctly.

The small electrical waste kerbside collection investment fund is seeking applications from any UK waste collection authority to roll-out and/or expand kerbside collection, with up to £3 million allocated from 2020 through to 2022. Applications are now open with a closing date of 25 October 2019.

A smaller £0.5 million fund has also been launched to support UK registered reuse organisations to build capacity and help expand their small electrical waste collection network and upgrade their re-use, testing and repair operations. The closing date for applications for the first round is 18 October 2019.

More and easier ways to recycle

Scott Butler, WEEE Fund Manager, said: “We are working with a range of key partners including Local Authorities, business, and community groups to deliver projects to encourage recycling and re-use of small waste electricals. Our 4-pronged approach to increasing recycling includes: increased collection methods, reuse investment grants, and communications and behaviour change.”

“Our new kerbside and re-use collection investment funds, will open up more and easier ways for people to recycle their small electrical household waste. These, together with communications and behaviour change projects, will deliver the buy-in and engagement that is essential for ongoing success.”

Robbie Staniforth, head of policy at Ecosurety, commented “We hope to see Compliance Fee funding reduce over time as the UK starts to meet the targets set by government. However, in the meantime, it is a credit to government that they have setup a system that ensures producer funds are channelled into projects, such as these, that could make a real difference to the ability of the UK to meet future targets."

"The system is imperfect but the question stakeholders are asking is correct - how do we use these significant funds to ensure more WEEE is collected and recycled?”

To apply to the new investment fund please click here for more information.

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