The European Community WEEE Directive: Declaration of WEEE Obligations (Methodology Statement)

WEEE Registered Producer:WEE/JE0046SY

The European Community WEEE directive deals with the disposal of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment at the end of its useful life.

The Wheelie Bin logo applied to a product or its packaging indicates that it should be disposed of in an acceptable manner.

Although there are no legal requirements on the household end-user to do so, the discarded equipment should be disposed of at a WEEE collection site, or if being replaced, be handed-in when buying something of similar description. Every EC reseller has the obligation to offer to take-back in this way.

Avoiding Pollution and the Waste of World Resources

The Environmental directives of the European Community are an attempt to reduce pollution and the waste of world resources. Three directives currently regulate the way electrical and electronic goods are designed, manufactured and disposed of at the end of their useful life. These are "Eco-design", "RoHS" and "WEEE".

Eco-design deals with the reduction in energy consumption, RoHS deals with the removal of hazardous substances, and WEEE deals with the disposal of waste.

WEEE

Our obligation is to ensure the correct disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) we produce when it reaches the end of its useful life and becomes Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

WEEE: Declaration of our Producer and Distributor Obligations

To make it fair for all concerned, WEEE legislation is necessarily complicated, which makes it difficult to understand. Below we list our obligations. Our distributors (wholesalers, dealers and resellers) throughout the European Community also have obligations and are responsible for declaring their own compliance in their own publicity materials.

Our UK B2B and B2C obligations differ

Please read about B2B and B2C obligations on this page.

B2B: Business to business (professional and non-household end-users, but not distributors)

B2C: Business to customer (household only end-users)

B2B in the UK (Direct sales)

Our obligation when selling as a producer to a professional end-user or non-household end-user

The professional end-user or non-household end-user should return to us* any product we produced after 13th August 2005 for correct disposal when it becomes waste.

As required, we operate a like for like take-back scheme for products bought before 13th August 2005 when being replaced by a similar product of ours - we can take-back waste equipment who's origin is a different producer.

Products bought after that date are to be returned to their own producer or distributor who should publish their obligation like we do here.

* We are not obliged to pay for costs involved in returning B2B WEEE.

B2C sold via a distributor in the UK (UK resellers)

Our obligation when selling via a distributor for resale to household end-users

As a producer, we belong to the approved Valpak Compliance Scheme which handles our obligation for WEEE when a product, at the end of its useful life, is deposited at a WEEE collection site.

B2C in the UK and European Community (Direct sales)

Our obligation when selling direct to a household end-user

As a reseller to a household end-user our obligation is to offer to take back a waste or discarded product when we sell a new product on a like-for-like basis. We are obliged to do this free-of-charge, which means we will discount any reasonable postage cost incurred in sending the discarded like-for-like item to us. If you would like to do this, we will need to know about the discarded equipment and the cost in returning it before agreeing the discount on the new purchase.

Correct Disposal

Correct disposal means we send it to an ATF (authorized treatment facility) and by you returning your discarded product to us, we can ensure this is done properly and obtain the necessary evidence required from us by the UK Environment Agency.

Graham Slee Projects Limited