Household EEE (B2C) system

An important classification is whether or not a business should classify their EEE as falling within the household or non household sectors. The regulatory authorities have taken the position that where ambiguity exists, the EEE should be classified as household.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of the producer to determine whether their EEE is within scope and how it should be correctly classified. The main point to consider is where the EEE ends up at the end of its life i.e. within a business or within a household.

The WEEE Regulations differ for between EEE sold for household and non household. In line with their market share, Producers of household EEE placed onto the UK market are responsible for a proportion of separately handed in household WEEE at registered Designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) throughout the UK. The DCF sites are mainly local authority civic amenity sites.

The producer compliance schemes on behalf of their household members have the duty of contracting with local authorities to collect, treat, recycle, recover and dispose of in environmentally sound manner WEEE collected from such DCF sites in line with their member market share obligations.

For example if a producer x places 10 tonnes of category 3 household EEE on the UK market in a compliance year and the total amount of Cat 3 producer EEE placed on the UK market for that compliance year is 100 tonnes then producer x is responsible for financing the equivalent of 10% of all separately handed in WEEE at the DCF sites.

Obligated household producers have to register with an approved compliance scheme, produce the quarterly data and pay their compliance scheme for the costs associated with the collection, treatment, recovery and recycling of their equivalent household WEEE market share.