From the 1st of January 2025, all Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) will be notifiable under new codes.
Companies exporting or importing WEEE will need to obtain a notification from the Competent Authorities involved to obtain a consent for the export or import of this type of waste.
This change is being brought in because of an amendment to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. The amendment addresses the need for better regulation of WEEE shipments and will help protect human health and the environment.
All WEEE will be classified under the new waste shipment codes and exporters must ensure that any waste that will arrive in the destination country after the 1st of January 2025 is correctly coded and notified.
The new codes do not cover components or fractions of whole WEEE (WEEE derived waste) that are currently covered by specific codes and meet the required specification for those codes. For example, hazardous waste batteries will continue to be covered by entry A1170, and non-hazardous waste batteries will continue to be covered by entry B1090.
Steve Molyneux, Deputy Director of Waste and Resources Regulation at the Environment Agency, said:
“These changes will ensure that exported Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment is managed in an environmentally sound manner throughout shipment and during recycling”
“We encourage interested parties to review the changes and prepare for when legislation is in place on 1 January 2025.”
