Your business’ electrical and electronic equipment

What you must do

All businesses that use electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) must comply with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations. This includes all domestic or household EEE that you may use on your premises. For all non-household EEE either the producer or end user is responsible for the disposal of the products.

If you give your WEEE to someone else you must ensure that they are a registered waste carrier or other approved person. You must ensure that it is accompanied by a waste transfer note or hazardous waste consignment note (as appropriate) and taken to a suitable facility to be treated and recycled.

You must obtain and keep proof that your WEEE was given to a waste management business, and was treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound way.

England and Wales

Northern Ireland and Scotland

Your business can return WEEE free of charge to the manufacturer of the equipment if it was sold to you new after 13 August 2005.

If you are replacing WEEE produced before 13 August 2005 with new equivalent EEE, you can return the WEEE free of charge to the manufacturer of your new equipment.

If you rent or lease EEE you can also return WEEE free of charge to your equipment supplier.

When buying new EEE you should ensure that you obtain and keep the producer registration number. This will allow you to contact the producer when you need to dispose of the products.

In these circumstances the producer’s compliance scheme is responsible for the WEEE. The original producer can give you information on the take-back system available to you. Your EEE supplier can provide you with their contact details.

Your EEE suppliers and retailers can dispose of business WEEE for you, but they may charge you for this service.

If the producer of your EEE refuses to take responsibility for your waste, contact your environmental regulator. Remember to look for the bar underneath the crossed-out wheeled bin symbol. This confirms that the WEEE is non-historic (produced after 13 August 2005) and disposal is the responsibly of the producer of the EEE. Historic WEEE products do not have the bar and all producers must accept it, regardless of who actually produced it, so long as you are purchasing a similar replacement product.

You must arrange and pay for the transfer of WEEE to an appropriately licensed facility if you:

• are discarding EEE which was purchased before 13 August 2005 (known as historic WEEE), and are not replacing it with equivalent EEE
• cannot trace the producer or its compliance scheme
• negotiate an alternative arrangement with your supplier.

Northern Ireland

Scotland

You may want to negotiate your WEEE responsibilities with your supplier. You can agree to transfer obligations for WEEE that is being replaced, or for new EEE when it becomes WEEE and is discarded. You can include this agreement as a part of your usual contract negotiations, and it can benefit both parties. Dealing with your own WEEE might enable you to negotiate a discount with your supplier, which could save you money.

You will save money on disposal costs if you reduce the amount of WEEE you produce.

You can donate or sell working EEE to be reused.

If you plan to export your working WEEE outside of the UK, contact your environmental regulator to find out if the equipment would be considered waste. You may need to comply with waste regulations both in the UK and the receiving country.

Find your local WEEE disposal company using the NetRegs Waste directory.

Remember to keep full records of WEEE disposal for auditing purposes. Ensure that you only use registered waste carrier and disposal businesses and that you keep the relevant certificates and transfer notes.

In this guideline: