Printer Cartridges in scope of new UK WEEE Regs

On 20 January 2015, the UK Environment Agency issued a statement regarding printer cartridges and the UK WEEE Regulations.

The Commission’s final FAQ document on the Recast WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) sets out that a printer cartridge falls within scope of the Directive if it meets the definition of EEE given in Article 3(1)(a) and does not fall under the exclusions of Article 2 of the Directive. Taking this into consideration, the UK has concluded that printer cartridges should be brought into scope of the UK WEEE Regulations.

In order to provide the industry sufficient time to make the changes necessary to ensure compliance, printer cartridges will be brought into scope of the UK WEEE Regulations, effective for the 2016 compliance period. This means that:

• Producers who will be placing printer cartridges on the UK market during the 2016 compliance period will need to register as an EEE producer.
• Producers will need to report on a quarterly basis during 2016 the tonnages of printer cartridges placed on the UK market.

Data collected during 2016 will feed into determining the targets for 2017 and as such the financial obligations for the collection, treatment and recovery of printer cartridges will arise for producers during the 2017 compliance period.

The Environment Agency’s guidance document on scope of equipment covered by the UK WEEE Regulations will be updated to reflect the change outlined above.