WEEE penalises quality appliances

For some reason the recycling costs imposed by the government (designed to force manufacturers to reduce the amount of waste they create) penalises the appliance manufacturers that make high quality appliances the most. I know the WEEE scheme is a complicated subject and I’m sure it does some good somewhere but it seems that if you make a really high quality domestic appliance that can last 20 years or more (which you would have thought would be extremely good for the environment) you have to pay much more through the WEEE Legislation than a company making a real cheap-tack appliance that may only last several years at best.