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Guidance

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): how to be an approved exporter

Apply to become an approved exporter (AE) and operate legally under the approval.

From:
Environment Agency
Published:
6 May 2014
Last updated:
30 July 2026 — See all updates

You must apply for approval if you are an exporter and you want to:

  • issue evidence notes on whole appliances for reuse overseas received from or on behalf of a producer compliance scheme (PCS)
  • export materials extracted from WEEE for treatment, recovery or recycling outside the UK received from an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) – the AATF issues the evidence on this WEEE

This is known as ‘obligated’ WEEE.

If the overseas treatment or recovery site receiving your WEEE is located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) it must operate to the equivalent standard of an ATF in the UK.

You may need an appropriate exemption or an environmental permit or licence.

You must comply with the Waste Shipments Regulation.

Approvals cover the period from 1 January to 31 December. 

You can apply for approval at any time in the year, but you need to apply at least 12 weeks before you want the approval to start. This is to give the regulator enough time to make a decision. 

If you want your approval to start on 1 January, you need to apply by 30 September in the previous year. 

If you apply and get an approval part way through a year, it will still end on 31 December that year. You must apply for approval for every year that you operate as an AE.

Charges

There is a charge for applying to be an AE of WEEE. It’s based on the amount of evidence of whole WEEE exported for reuse issued during the calendar year. 

If you are approved as a small AE and issue evidence for more than 400 tonnes of whole WEEE during a compliance year, you must must pay the balance of the higher charge within 28 days. 

If your application is refused, your fee will not be refunded. 

Charges in England

To find out what you need to pay for AEs in England read part 2, sections 10 (1) and (2) of the Waste (miscellaneous) charging scheme 2018. 

To pay by: 

  • electronic transfer (BACS), make the payment when you complete the online form – you’ll be prompted to enter a payment reference number in the application 
  • credit or debit card, select this option in the application and a member of the team will contact you after they receive your application, to take the payment 

Contact the team before you start your application if you cannot pay by BACS, debit card or credit card.

Charges in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales

To find out the fees for AEs in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, contact the relevant environmental regulator. You can pay your fee to those regulators by: 

  • debit card or credit card (using Quickpay), or BACS to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency 
  • BACS to Natural Resources Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency  

Contact the relevant regulator before you start your application if you cannot pay by these methods.

Before you start your application

Have the following information ready when you begin the application:

  • for corporate bodies, your company registration number and your company registration document 

  • for partnerships, a document showing evidence of the partnership  

  • your exporter number, if you’ve been an AE of WEEE before  

  • a sampling and inspection plan – see ‘Sampling and inspection plans’ for details of what this must include 

  • details about the overseas sites you are exporting the WEEE to 

  • evidence of equivalent standards for overseas facilities outside the EEA 

  • the descriptions and waste codes of the WEEE that you’ll export 

  • details of your treatment, recovery and recycling processes  

  • details of how you’ll manage loads that are rejected at the site or returned to England 

  • details of any convictions under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations, 2006 as amended or the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013

All supporting documents must be in English or translated into English.

Sampling and inspection plans

In the application form, you’ll be asked to upload your sampling and inspection plan. This must include details of:

If you have questions about the plan, or want a template to complete, contact the relevant UK regulator.

Equivalent standards

If you export to a site located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) you must provide evidence in your application that the site takes measures to ensure their waste operations will not endanger human health or harm the environment. You can provide:

  • copies of permits or licences to show that it’s a regulated site operating to equivalent UK standards
  • a statement from the competent authority under which the site operates confirming that the site operates to equivalent UK standards

See the guidance on acceptable evidence of broadly equivalent standards.

All evidence must:

  • relate to the overseas reprocessing site in your application 

  • be in date at the time you submit your application 

  • refer to the reprocessing activity and the conditions and standards it needs to operate 

  • have an official stamp on the original document from the competent authority, if it’s an environmental licence 

  • be in English or have an English translation with it

Apply for approval

Your application will go to the environmental regulator of the UK country that your business is registered or located in. The regulators are:

  • Environment Agency (England)
  • Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Scotland)
  • Natural Resources Wales (Wales)
  • Northern Ireland Environment Agency (Northern Ireland)

Do not submit your 2027 application before 1 September 2026. If you do, it will be rejected and you will need to start a new application.

You can start your application before 1 September 2026, but you must save it and come back on or after that date to submit it.

Start now

What happens next

It can take up to 12 weeks to assess and make a decision on your application. A site visit might be needed as part of the assessment. 

If your application is approved before 1 January, your approval will run from 1 January to 31 December of the following year. If you apply part way through a year, your approval will start on the date the decision is made and end on 31 December.  

If your application is refused, you’ll be told why and given details of your right to appeal.

If you need to add an extra overseas treatment, recovery or recycling site after you’ve received approval, you can apply to have this site added to your approval. Contact the relevant environmental regulator to do this.

Your duties as an AE

Comply with other laws

In moving and handling WEEE you have a duty of care and must comply with regulations for:

Issue evidence

You must only issue evidence notes for the reuse of whole appliances sent overseas received by or on behalf of a PCS.

You must issue evidence notes to a PCS through the WEEE online system – a secure website that generates evidence notes.

See the WEEE evidence and national WEEE protocols guidance for details on issuing evidence.

Keep records and report

You must complete quarterly returns and send them to the environmental regulator that granted your approval. You must keep a copy of the data used in each return for 4 years.

You must do this through the WEEE online system.

In each quarterly return you must tell your environmental regulator:

  • total amount of WEEE exported in tonnes by category, whether household or non-household, and the scheme it was received from
  • total amount of WEEE exported for reuse as a whole appliance, treatment, recovery or recycling in tonnes by category, whether household or non-household and the scheme it was received from
  • name of each scheme who evidence has been issued to and the total tonnage of evidence issued to that scheme
  • total amount of non-obligated WEEE received in tonnes by category

If you have no data to report for a quarter you must still report this. There is an option for you to submit a nil return by confirming that you have no data to report.

You should keep any supporting information such as export paperwork, shipping documents, contract details, weighbridge tickets, photographs and invoices as added proof of your work.

Quarterly reporting dates

The environmental regulator must receive the report by the following dates:

  • quarter 1 (January, February, March) by 30 April
  • quarter 2 (April, May, June) by 31 July
  • quarter 3 (July, August, September) by 31 October
  • quarter 4 (October, November, December) by 31 January

Sanctions for non-compliance

Your environmental regulator may suspend or cancel your AE status if you fail, or are likely to fail, any of the conditions in Part 3 (AE), Schedule 11 of the WEEE regulations.

You’ll receive a notice which:

  • gives the reasons for the suspension or cancellation
  • states the actions to take to lift the suspension or reapply for approval
  • describes your right to appeal

Your WEEE online account, PCS and public register entry will be updated to reflect your status.

A suspension or cancellation of your approval means you cannot issue evidence notes – only WEEE received during ‘approved’ status can have evidence issued against it.

Other sanctions for non-compliance are:

  • warning letters
  • formal cautions
  • prosecution under criminal law:
    • at a magistrates court a fine not exceeding £5,000 for each offence
    • at Crown Court an unlimited fine

Legislation

For the legislation, see:

Get help

If you have questions, need help completing your application, or would like the form in a different format, contact the relevant environmental regulator:

England

Email: weee@environment-agency.gov.uk

Telephone: 03708 506 506

Producer Responsibility Regulatory Services
Environment Agency
Quadrant 2
99 Parkway Avenue
Parkway Business Park
Sheffield
S9 4WF

Scotland

Email: producer.responsibility@sepa.org.uk

Telephone: 01786 457700

Producer Compliance and Waste Shipment Unit
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Strathallan House
Castle Business Park
Stirling
FK9 4TZ

Northern Ireland

Email: weee@daera-ni-gov.uk

Telephone: 028 9056 9338

Producer Responsibility Unit
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
1st Floor Bradan
NIEA Lisburn
17 Antrim Road
Tonagh
Lisburn
BT28 3AL

Wales

Email: weee@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 065 3000

Producer Responsibility Unit
Natural Resources Wales
Rivers House
St Mellons Business Park, St Mellons
Cardiff
CF3 0EY

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Updates to this page

Published 6 May 2014
Last updated 30 July 2026 Show all updates

  1. Start button and link added to the new online application form, along with information on what to have ready before applying and how to pay the application fee.

  2. Corrected the charges for AEs by removing all reference to information which is now outdated. This has been replaced with a link to the Waste (miscellaneous) charging scheme. A link has been added to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2025. Corrected the address for the Northern Ireland environmental regulator.

  3. Approved authorised treatment facilities and approved exporters must now submit their quarterly returns through the WEEE online system.

  4. We have updated the charges.

  5. Updated to include Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and regulator guidance

  6. First published.

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