The Environmental Services Association (ESA), the voice for the UK’s resource and waste management industry, has expressed opposition to the 2018 WEEE collection targets.
ESA Policy Adviser Roy Hathaway said: “Defra should heed the criticism from right across the waste management sector that reducing the WEEE collection targets by 14% is not the right way to tackle the shortfall in last year’s targets, much less to move the industry forward to meet the higher targets for 2019 and beyond.
“Government should hold the 2018 targets broadly at current levels and together with regulators take urgent action to address illegal leakage of WEEE from the system, using the significant funds raised by last year’s Compliance Fee.”
Defra has proposed dropping collection targets for 2018 by 14% compared to 2017 – from 622,023 tonnes in 2017 to 532,818 this year. This included an 18% reduction in targets for large household appliances and a 14% reduction for lamps.