What
is the WEEE Directive?
The Waste Electrical
and Electronic Equipment Directive is a European law that must be transposed
into UK law by 13th of August 2004.
The WEEE Directive
is designed to encourage and regulate the collection, reuse, recycling
and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment, for which it
sets targets.
There are a some undefined
areas that are currently being discussed within the EU, but we will do
our best to inform you of latest developments through these pages.
Producer Responsibility
The directive makes
the producer (manufacturer or importer) of the goods responsible for financing
end-of-life recycling and recovery costs, as private households must be
able to return WEEE without charge. This comes into effect on 13th of
August 2005. See the manufacturer pages for more information.
Scope
A large amount of
electrical goods are covered by the directive -
Large and small household
appliances
IT and communication equipment
Consumer entertainment equipment (such as TVs, videos and hi-fis)
Lighting
Electrical and electronic toys
Tools
Leisure and sports equipment
Medical devices (with some exceptions)
Monitoring and control equipment
Automatic dispensers
If these goods are
separately collected, then they must go for recycling. There is a duty
on the UK to encourage reuse of goods and their components before material
recovery is considered. See the scope pages for more information.
Purpose
This directive aims
to improve our environment, reduce risks to human health through the proper
treatment of discarded goods.
The necessity of recycling
these items and preventing them going to landfill is well set out in a
EEB (European Environmental Bureau) report, follow the link on the right.
The following requirements
are set out in the directive's text:
- Free take back
of WEEE from private households, including retailer take back
- A collection target
of 4 kg per head of population per annum to be achieved thirty-six months
after entry into force
Treatment
The WEEE Directive
requires the following actions at appliances' end-of-life:
- Removal of all
fluids and certain substances (from the RoHS Directive) and components
that contain them
- To be carried out
by licensed operators
- Premises must have
adequate storage facilities (weatherproof with impermeable floors etc.)
for removed substances and components
Recovery
- Setting of recovery
and recycling targets are according to product category
- Targets divided
into overall recovery element - of which a certain amount must be achieved
through recycling, component or substance reuse (as opposed to, for
example, incineration with energy recovery)
- Targets range
from 50% - 80%
- Targets to be
reached forty-six months after Regulations come into force
Financing
- Producers to pay
for collection (from a central point), treatment and recovery/recycling
of household WEEE
The costs of historic WEEE to be met through producer collectives
- Business-to-business
WEEE is under review - click here
- Consumers to be
provided with information about the recycling of unwanted appliances
- Producers to provide
treatment facilities with information to identify components, materials
and the location of hazardous substances in products
- Member States to
record amount of goods on market and levels of recycling achieved
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