Environmental Leader

Despite an official warning from the government last August, manufacturers and wholesalers of fluorescent lamps in the UK continue to impose a 16p (about 28 cents) per unit charge on customers to cover compliance costs related to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive (WEEE), even though the practice is illegal under legislation, BusinessGreen.com reports.

The WEEE directive was introduced in the UK last year with the goal of ensuring that the cost of potentially hazardous electronic waste was covered by manufactures.

Kath Barker, a spokeswoman for the WEEE implementation team told BusinessGreen.com that the regulation “does not give a producer the right to impose an additional charge on purchaser to cover the cost of treatment and recycling as required by the regulations.”

Electrical Distributors Association Director, Nigel Ellis, told BusinessGreen.com that he was surprised that WEEE-related surcharges were in violation of the directive.

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