Valpak responds to rise in WEEE targets

The UK’s largest compliance scheme, Valpak by Reconomy, has responded to a provisional increase in WEEE targets for 2026.

Defra has proposed a rise of 4.64 per cent. The announcement also saw an increase in target for small mixed WEEE, which the department linked to changes such as positive trends in collections and corrected evidence that had previously been lost from the system.

Jim Armitage, Director of Procurement at Valpak said: “Effective target setting is vital to the WEEE system to ensure producers are funding a robust and cost-effective recycling system. The targets are typically set at aspirational levels – which they should be if they are to succeed in increasing the volumes of WEEE collected for recycling.

“2025 was a whirlwind within the WEEE sector, where many operators dealt with a whole host of challenges and, whilst Defra has generally taken these challenges into consideration with its draft targets, some additional clarity is needed – such as how the assumed missing WEEE, that was collected in 2025 and has now been included in baseline target calculations, was quantified.”

Defra proposed a total household WEEE collection target of 550,902 tonnes for 2026, up from a revised 2025 total of 526,460 tonnes. It also included a policy uplift to the small mixed WEEE target, to bring it to 159,248 tonnes.

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