We already have our own recycling system so why do we have to pay again?
It’s a different way of paying for recycling, part upfront on the sale of the item and part when you actually recycle. If you think about the overall cost of recycling, this is comprised of a number of different variables such as the consignment note cost, logistics and transport cost as well as the actual recycling cost (i.e. once it is inside the reprocessing plant). The actual recycling cost is in reality only a small part of the overall cost for recycling (it is estimated that 80% of the cost of recycling is attributed to logistics and transportation).

The standard fee† upfront cost is equivalent to the actual cost of recycling (the bit when the product gets into the recycling centre). Your recycling contractor should therefore be reducing their cost to you for overall recycling proportional to the cost of the visible fee, i.e. a cost reduction of around standard fee† per lamp. This is because they in turn can charge the actual recycling proportion (standard fee†) of cost back to the lamp manufacturers through their compliance scheme (a company called Recolight). So in other words the recycler still makes the same income but charges two different people for the cost. In some cases, your existing recycler may not have a commercial relationship with the lamp suppliers or Recolight that allows them to do this, which is why they may not be reducing their costs to you and are charging you the recycling proportion. This is an issue between your recycler and the lamp suppliers. In theory your end of life recycling cost should reduce so that overall you pay the same as you always did, albeit that standard fee† of the cost is now upfront on the cost of purchase.

 
Some suppliers don’t levy a WEEE charge
– why do you?
In the case of lamps, we know that every supplier is making the same commercial charge to all wholesalers as the fee has been unilaterally imposed across our industry. Those wholesalers who choose not to pass on the charge would be absorbing the cost or more likely integrating the standard fee† cost into the actual purchase cost of the product. However, this would be more typical in the retail market, where costs to consumers would be significantly higher than the wholesale market, in which case we would expect some retail suppliers, such as the DIY chain, to be selling lamps without a separate fee (albeit the cost is likely to be built into the cost of the product). Ultimately, the decision for the business consumer is whether to pay a higher price with the standard fee† built into the cost or a lower price with the standard fee† separated out. We do not know of any major electrical wholesaler who is taking a different position to ourselves currently. Of course this is our current position and this could change.

 
Do we have to buy from you to make use of your recycling offer?
Yes. It’s an exclusive offer for our customers. You would not need to prove that products that are recycled were purchased from us originally, it’s purely based on current trading relationships, so new customers as well as existing customers are entitled to take advantage of our recycling services.

 
Why do we have to pay the WEEE levy for lamps and what is it?
The standard fee† is a commercial charge made by the lamp manufacturers to recover the costs that they have incurred because of the WEEE regulations. Different companies will call it by different names, but essentially it’s not a ‘levy’ under the Regulations or a government tax. We have not set the charge and do not profit from it, we simply pass on the commercial charge in the same format that has been applied by the manufacturers to us. We appreciate this is a contentious issue for many of our customers, and as such we have put together a separate guidance note that specifically covers this issue. You can request a copy of this from your local branch. For our own brand lamp products, where we are deemed to be the manufacturer, we will not apply a separate transactional charge.

†WEEE charge is 15p on all lamps excluding Retrofit Compact Fluorescent Lamps and Integral Control Gear which is now 3p.