LIGHTING PRODUCERS

WEEE compliance for the lighting industry

Recolight is the UK’s leading WEEE compliance scheme for the lighting industry.

We take on responsibility for our Members’ compliance; giving their customers’ access to the UK’s most comprehensive free GDL, LED, luminaire, and street lantern recycling service.

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JOIN THE RECOLIGHT COMPLIANCE SCHEME

  • Compelling reasons for you to join the only WEEE compliance scheme for the lighting industry that focuses on WEEE lighting.
  • Details of our Associate Membership for new entrants to the market and those who put less than five tonnes of product onto the market each year.
  • Ways for you to benefit from your membership to Recolight.
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RECOLIGHT MEMBERS TESTIMONIALS

Don’t just take our word for it, read what our members have to say.

THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY & SUSTAINABILITY

Recolight and the Circular Economy of Lighting

Transformation to a circular economy is increasingly being seen as an essential requirement for manufacturing businesses. This will become ever more important as demand for resources rises, and energy costs increase.

For several years, Recolight has worked with the lighting industry to drive the adoption of circular economy principles. As a result, the company has launched key initiatives to provide information, practical guidance, and services to help companies transition to a circular economy.

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THE WEEE REGULATIONS

WEEE Directive and UK WEEE Regulations

Find out more about the evolution of WEEE regulations since they were first introduced to the UK.

  • What is covered by the UK WEEE directives, which lamps are in scope and who is responsible?
  • Who do the WEEE regulations affect, and what are they for?
  • What is required to be compliant with the WEEE regulations, as a lighting producer.
  • and more useful information to help keep you compliant.
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THE RECOLIGHT RECYCLING PROCESS

The Recolight recycling process for lamps and LEDs

Find out more about how Recolight operates to deliver reliable and environmentally sound solutions for lamp recycling. Plus:
  Our outstanding recovery rate
  How different lamps are recycled
  The future of lamp recycling
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USEFUL LINKS & DOWNLOADS

Links to government department pages and Associations of benefit to the Lighting Industry, key lighting news sites and documents downloads for Recolight and Environment Agency.

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FAQS

The following are some of our frequently asked questions from lighting producer members.
If you have a question that we have not answered below, please contact us.

Who are Recolight?

Recolight is a producer compliance scheme specialising in the recycling of all WEEE lighting in accordance with the WEEE Regulations.

Recolight was established in 2005 by the UK lamp producers who account for a significant share of the UK market.

Its members are producers and importers of EEE who put new lamps on the market for the first time in the UK, and are therefore obliged to comply with the WEEE Regulations.

Recolight offers specialist recycling services for all WEEE lighting, advice and support to help all parties in the supply chain recycle their lamps as simply and efficiently as possible

Recolight is unique in the WEEE lamp industry, in undertaking recycling in excess of its legal obligations. This reflects the organisations, and its members’ genuine commitment to maximising the recycling of lamps.

As a not for profit organisation, all funds are used to promote and maximise recycling, and not used to pay dividends to stake holders.

 

Scheme approval number issued by the Environment Agency is WEE/MP3838PR/SCH.

How does Recolight's compliance scheme work?

Recolight takes on the legal responsibility of its producer members to comply with the WEEE Regulations through a binding agreement.

Recolight is a not-for-profit company and passes on, to its members, the costs and financing it incurs each year in carrying out the various tasks of its business plan on behalf of the members.

For example:

  • Recycling services.
  • Investment in marketing to raise awareness of the need to recycle and the Recolight brand.
  • Administration costs and ensuring a viable financial base for the compliance scheme.

Our cost recovery method is to calculate a flat charge per lamp type which is then applied equally to all members.

This ensures the process is equitable to all and kept simple and cost effective.

What are a producer's obligation under the WEEE Regulations?

The WEEE Regulations state that:

“Producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) are responsible for financing and ensuring the disposal of end-of-life products in an environmentally sound way arising from both household and non-household users.”

 

If you put a product in scope of the WEEE regulations onto the UK market by any of the following:

  • Manufacture and sell electrical and electronic equipment under their own brand.
  • Resell, under their own brand, equipment produced by other suppliers.
  • Import electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into an EU Member State. This includes imports into the UK from other EU member states

You must join a compliance scheme which will meet your WEEE responsibility for you by financing the safe disposal of all products at end-of life.

Recolight, who will manage this responsibility on your behalf.

It is your obligation as a producer to:

  • Mark all EEE with the wheelie bin symbol
  • Declare WEEE number to distributors
  • Provide recycling information of all EEE
  • Sign an annual declaration of compliance

A full list of your responsibilities can be found on the Environment Agency website.

What admin and reporting will I need to do?

  • There is an initial process of registering on the Recolight Black Box secure website and returning signed copies of the Scheme Rules Agreement.
  • The monthly data update will only take a few minutes each month via the Black Box.
  • Thereafter Recolight will take care of your legal obligations on your behalf and provide information on an as-required basis to support your business.

All schemes must report data in a standard format to the enforcement agencies and we have designed our own formats in the same way as a matter of efficiency.

To demonstrate to the enforcement agencies that our data is correct we audit our members. This is done on a random basis and no more onerous than necessary to achieve the objective.

Black Box timeline of events

Monthly

Each month you are required to advise Recolight of your placed on market units and their aggregated weight. An accurate declaration must be made between the first and fifteenth day of each month, following the month end.

Environment Agency rules for declaring are:

  • B2B All goods placed on market within any calendar year must be declared no later than 15 January of the year following.
  • B2C All goods placed on market must be declared quarterly.
  • If your company is declaring B2C, then regardless of unit quantity, you must declare these figures quarterly.

Annual confirmations

An annual confirmation is a confirmation of the information your company has supplied to us throughout the previous year, summarised on a single page document.

You carry out this process after the 16 January each year and have up until the 15 February to complete. It takes just a few minutes.

This is an EA requirement.

Annual Declaration of Compliance 

The annual declaration process starts around the first week of September each year, and you have until 16 November to complete. All members are emailed a document with questions; this must be printed, answered, signed by a director or senior manager and then scanned or posted to Recolight.

Who do the WEEE regulations affect?

The WEEE Regulations affect everybody in one way or another but the primary groups affected are:

  • Producers, who become responsible for financing the end-of-life treatment of their products
  • Distributors, who become responsible in some cases for taking-back end-of-life products when new products are purchased and for providing information to users about the need for recycling and facilities for the disposal of end-of-life products.

A producer is the party which first puts Electrical or Electronic Equipment (EEE) onto the UK market, whether they are manufacturers of EEE, private brand distributors or importers. The primary responsibility is to finance the environmentally sound disposal of their products at end-of-life.

A producer is any person who:

  • Manufactures and sells electrical and electronic equipment under their own brand.
  • Resells, under their own brand, equipment produced by another supplier.
  • Imports electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into an EU Member State.

Producers of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) as listed in Schedule 2 of the UK WEEE Regulations are responsible for financing and ensuring the disposal of end-of-life products in an environmentally sound way arising from both household and non-household users. There are some exemptions and limits to this that can be found in the detail in the Regulations. For Example: non-Household WEEE where there is no like-for-like replacement.

Producers must join a Compliance scheme (or provide their own Environment Agency approved scheme) which will meet this responsibility by:

  • Managing and paying for the recycling and recovery of their share of this WEEE,
  • and report on what they have done to the appropriate Government authority.

Full details may be found in the BIS Guidelines.

>> Request More information on Who do the WEEE Regulations affect?

Are LEDs included in the regulations?

LEDs and OLEDs were by the Environment Agency as “in scope” for the WEEE regulations in May 2009.

As a result, companies importing or producing LED and OLED lamps need to comply with the WEEE regulations now.  Recolight membership ensures that LED, OLED and LED luminaire producers are compliant with the law, and that they can also offer free recycling to their customers.

Household luminaires come into scope of the WEEE Regulations in 2019.

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