Under the UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations, there are now 1,117 civic amenity sites (or equivalent) and 248 waste transfer stations registered with the Distributor Takeback Scheme as designated Collection Facilities (DCFs) for the collection of household WEEE. There are also a further 244 other sites registered as DCFs, including those from charity and the not-for-profit sector, retailer depots and the commercial sector.

Once collected at a DCF the costs associated with picking this material up, taking it to be correctly treated and then recycling the component parts, is the responsibility of 'producers'. This task is carried out by their chosen Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) with whom each local authority in the UK can contract for these services to be provided.

Although rather uniquely this represents a 'zero value contract' it is important for Local Authorities to ensure that their chosen PCS can deliver a high quality, reliable and good value service.

The Valpak operated PCS is the second largest in the UK (by size of member obligation) and has responsibility for collections from over 180 DCF's in more than 35 Local Authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. The key attributes to this scheme are:

• service levels agreed at the outset between us and each Local Authority partner which are regularly monitored and reported back during review meetings
• a flexible approach to managing collections depending on the site characteristics. We believe it is important to retain incumbent operators where suitable to maintain existing relationships and retain valuable operational knowledge
• due to the size of Valpak's member obligation we can commit to collecting all separately collected streams of WEEE
• a single point of contact for each local authority from our dedicated support team
• a strong data management capability built on our ten years of operation as the UK's largest compliance scheme under the Packaging Waste Regulations means that tonnage data for waste dataflow submissions will be both accurate and timely

Valpak is more than just a WEEE compliance scheme; we can also offer benefits to Local Authorities on a number of different levels from waste management to bring bank collection systems (rescape™) and consulting services (including waste arising analyses, carbon foot printing etc)

To find out more please send an email to info@valpak.co.uk or click on the link to register your sites as DCF's