WEEE Compliance

The directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) aims to increase the re-use, recycling and recovery of waste from a variety of consumer products ranging from light bulbs to PCs, mobile phones, medical devices and sports equipment. The WEEE directive is complemented by a directive on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. The two directives came into force in 2003 but have come under fire for being too complicated, too costly and even for being impossible to implement.

The Main Points of the WEEE Legislation are:

• Collection and recovery of waste equipment: Member states have until 2005 to introduce take-back systems and collection facilities for all electrical and electronic equipment. Electrical and electronic equipment must not end up in unsorted municipal waste but must be collected separately. A binding collection rate of 4 kg per inhabitant a year by the end of 2006 at the latest must be achieved;
• Producer responsibility: Producers will bear the costs involved in collection, recovery and disposal - at least from the collection facilities - for the waste arising from their new products. They will have the choice of either managing the waste on an individual basis or participating in collective schemes;
• Historical waste (put on the market before the directive comes into force): this waste will be treated through collective financing; producers can recover the costs through a "visible fee" sales tax on new products for eight years (ten years for larger products);
• Labeling of equipment : Producers of electrical and electronic equipment are required to label their products clearly to allow easier identification and dating and to inform consumers that all waste equipment is to be collected separately.
• Product design: The WEEE directive provides that dismantling and recovery should be facilitated at the production stage. Technical design features that prevent equipment from being reused are to be avoided.
• Limit values for hazardous substances: Four heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium) and the brominated flame retardants PBB and PBDE were due to be banned from 1 July 2006. But this measure was deemed inapplicable by the Commission who took a decision to tolerate some minimum concentration values in August 2005 (0.1% by weight for mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE and 0.01% by weight for cadmium).

For more information on WEEE legislation, Click Here