Defra consults on the WEEE Producer Compliance Scheme Balancing System

The WEEE Producer Compliance Scheme Balancing System (PBS) was originally set up in 2016 by 23 WEEE compliance schemes as a voluntary and collaborative way to deal with Regulation 34 requests from Local Authorities.

A Regulation 34 request requires a producer compliance scheme to collect WEEE free-of-charge from a local authority site. It is relied upon because sometimes it may not be commercially attractive to collect the waste due to the location, resulting in uncollected WEEE.

In a change to previous years, Defra has confirmed that from 2019 all WEEE producer compliance schemes must join the Government’s approved PBS, to ensure the cost of collecting WEEE is equally and fairly shared. This recognises the fact that in previous years some schemes had decided not to join the PBS, creating an unbalanced system.

Two new proposals for a PBS

Yesterday Defra launched a consultation to gain feedback on two new proposals for how the PBS should operate, put forward by the WEEE Schemes Forum and the WEEE Allocation Scheme. The consultation is open to producers of EEE, compliance schemes, WEEE treatment facilities, waste management companies, electrical re-use organisations and local authorities.

The consultation is due to close on the 15 April and the Secretary of State aims to announce the approved PBS by 1 August 2019. After this approval is announced all WEEE compliance schemes will have 30 days to join the new PBS.

Ecosurety will be carefully considering each proposal and will submit a response in due course. If you would like to discuss this with our team, please do contact us. Alternatively you can respond to the consultation directly here: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/environmental-quality/approvalofpbsproposal/.

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