What do you need to know as a retailer or distributor?

As a retailer, you must take back, free of charge, the appliance that the customer hands over to you when he is purchasing a new similar appliance from you. To simplify the taking back of discarded appliances, Recupel has set up a collection system.

The legal obligation

The legislation stipulates that each company that 'brings an electro-appliance onto the Belgian market' must also take care of the collection and processing of the discarded appliances.

As a distributor or end-seller, when a customer purchases a new product, you are obliged to take back the similar discarded product that the customer is discarding, free of charge. In addition, you must also inform your customers about the processing of discarded appliances and about the contributions for the processing.

Click here for information about the legal framework

Recupel provides you with free information material. In that way, you can inform your clients in your point of sales.

What is the Recupel contribution?

The Recupel contribution is the amount added to the price of a new electro-appliance. Recupel uses this revenue to organise and coordinate the collection, sorting, processing and recycling of waste in Belgium.

All of the appliances that are subject to a Recupel contribution are listed in the appliance list and are divided into 6 categories. Each category is further divided into ‘professional’ (blue) and ‘household’ (light blue).

For all professional electro-appliances, an administrative contribution is charged when the appliance is brought onto the market by the manufacturer or importer. This contribution covers Recupel’s costs for administration and reporting, but not for collection and processing.

For household appliances, an 'all-in' contribution is charged. It is stated separately – as ‘Recupel contribution’ – on the invoice or the payment receipt. In contrast to the 'administrative contribution', this ‘all-in’ contribution covers the costs for collection and processing as well as for Recupel’s operations and communication (reporting, monitoring companies, etc.).

The difference between professional and household appliances is not always evident. Read more about it here.

Informing your customers

In accordance with legislation, the Recupel contribution must always be clearly stated. This means that your customer must always be able to see the amount of the Recupel contribution each time he buys a product.

For household appliances, a Recupel all-in contribution applies. Since 1 July 2008, the term ‘visible fee’ is filled in for household appliances, for the purpose of maximum simplification. On invoices: importers/manufacturers continue to charge the contribution separately to distribution, and they always state this on a separate line on the invoice. As a distributor, you charge the net contribution to the consumer and clearly inform him about the amount of the contribution that he is paying. For this, you can use the form that you request via the online order form ('Documentation' category). On publications (folders, price tags, ...): if you, as a distributor, choose to no longer state the Recupel contribution separately in your publications, use the phrase 'Recupel included'. Note: maximum transparency is essential, and the consumer must be able to consult the Recupel contributions at all times.
For all professional appliances, an administrative contribution applies when the appliance is brought onto the market. This administrative contribution covers reporting and administrative costs. For most appliances with an administrative contribution, a retroactive declaration starting from 1 July 2005 is in force. This is an informative declaration; for most professional product categories, the invoicing of the administrative contribution starts from the declaration of January 2007. You cannot re-claim this administrative contribution. For professional appliances, the current 'Recupel included' rule remains in force.

Discover the difference between household and professional appliances

Become a collection point

To arrange the dismissal of old electro-appliances and bulbs, every merchant of electr(on)ic materials can become a Recupel collection point. In that case, we will place a box pallet (1m wide ; 1.2m deep ; 1.7m high) at your disposal to assemble your old electro-appliances. When this pallet is full, you can make a transport request. Thereafter, we will empty your pallet. You can only become a collection point if you meet a number of conditions.

Are you interested? Register now as a collection point.

After receiving your request, Recupel will send you an email to confirm your affiliation as a collection point. After the treatment of your request, you will receive a username and a password. These will allow you to make your transport requests online.

Compensation

The Environmental policy agreement concerning waste has imposed new tasks on distribution with regard to taking back and acceptance. Recupel is aware of the fact that making room for temporary storage of discarded appliances requires extra effort of the distributors.

To support this effort, we award financial compensation to distributors that:

are registered as a collection point with Recupel;
have a sufficient number of appliances collected;
and have signed a distribution contract.

Try to limit your number of transports. You can do this by having the electro-appliances collected in larger quantities. The conditions for this are set out in the distribution contract. Then, in addition to the distribution compensation, you also receive an optimisation compensation.

You can download the contract with the conditions in French or in Dutch. Simply print out 2 copies of this contract, sign them and initial every page, and then send them to:

Recupel vzw
Operations Dept.
Auguste Reyerslaan 80
B-1030 Brussels

Exportation (About the reimbursement of the Recupel contributions)

If you, as a middleman or end-seller, export appliances for which you have paid contributions to your Belgian supplier, then under certain conditions (export certificates) you can re-claim the contributions from Recupel. See declaration.

Reimbursement of the contributions also applies in the following cases:

upon sale with foreign VAT;
upon taking back defective goods;
upon assembly or installation in new products (e.g. screens, control tables, ...).

If you would like reimbursement of your Recupel contributions, then you must first enter into an affiliation agreement for the product category(ies) in which you are active. This agreement contains the general conditions for the reimbursement of your Recupel contributions.

Declaration

On the declaration form, you declare for which goods (category and number) you are requesting reimbursement. Note: reimbursement is only possible for appliances with an all-in contribution.

In principle, the importer or manufacturer submits all requests. If the importer has mandated one or more foreign suppliers to fulfil his declaration obligation, then only these foreign suppliers can receive reimbursement of Recupel contributions.

Note: Recupel may well monitor the correctness of the declarations.

The request to Recupel for reimbursement of Recupel contributions can be made by means of a monthly, quarterly or annual declaration. The declaration can be submitted electronically or manually.

Electronic declaration
You submit your declaration by means of the electronic declaration form. After entering your username and password, you fill in the electronic form.
Manual declaration
You can also submit your declarations by faxing the completed declaration form to: 02 204 76 00. Request the declaration form by calling: 0800 11 539 (free of charge).

Reimbursement

When invoicing, Recupel makes a net-settlement of the Recupel contributions to be paid and the reimbursement of Recupel contributions.

If you would like more information about this, consult the FAQ, or contact us at: 0800 11 539(free of charge) or via the online contact form.