EU Legislation on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

In the European Union, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is the fastest growing waste stream, increasing at 3 to 5% per year, which is three times faster than average waste.

About 90% of this waste is still land filled, incinerated or recovered without any pretreatment. This allows the polluting substances it contains, to make their way into soil, water and air where they pose a risk to human health and cause environmental damage.

Directive 2002/96/EC  on waste electrical and electronic equipment along with the complementary Directive 2002/95/EC on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) seeks to reduce the environmental impacts of WEEE throughout all stages of the equipment’s lifecycle. In particularly at the end-of-life stage, by encouraging the end-of-life management of the product, eco-design, life cycle thinking and extended producer responsibility.

Take-back schemes

Following Directive 2002/95/EC, since 1 July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment can no longer contain the following substances: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl’s (PBBs) and polybrominated biphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

The WEEE Directive has several key objectives. WEEE disposal to landfill should be considerably reduced. For that purpose, free producer take-back schemes for consumers of end-of-life equipment should be in place in all member states since 13 August 2005. For products put on the market after 13 August 2005, each producer has to finance the operations related to the waste from his own products. He can do this individually or by joining a collective scheme. 

Collection facilities

The Directive also aims at inciting producers to improve their product design so that WEEE is prevented and recoverability, re-usability and/or recyclability are increased. The Directive sets targets for recovery, reuse and recycling of different classes of WEEE. Furthermore, the legislation provides for the establishment of collection facilities and separate collection systems of WEEE from consumers.

Finally, the Directive provides for the establishment and financing of systems for the recovery and treatment of WEEE. For that purpose, producers who place new products on the market have to provide a guarantee showing that management of all WEEE will be financed. The guarantee may take the form of a participation in a collective scheme, a recycling insurance or a blocked bank account.

For a transitional period up to 13 February 2011, producers are allowed to show the purchaser, at the time of the sale of a new product, the costs of collection, treatment and disposal. The costs shown may not exceed the actual costs.

Waste collection

As for the collection of the waste, the distributors (for instance retailers) are responsible for ensuring that the waste can be returned on a one-to-one basis and on condition that the returned equipment fulfils the same function as the newly purchased equipment. However, member states may provide for other systems of collection, for instance through local council’s waste dump facilities.

Member states must give users the necessary information about the following:

1. the requirement not to dispose of WEEE as unsorted municipal waste and to collect such WEEE separately;
2. the return and collection systems available to them;
3. their role in contributing to reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE;
4. the potential effects on the environment and human health as a result of the presence of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment;
5. the meaning of the crossed-out dustbin mark, which should be on all electric and electronical equipment put on the market after 13 August 2005. Furthermore, there should be a mark stating that a product has been put on the market after 13 August 2005.

However, member states may decide that some or all of that information is provided by producers and/or distributors, e.g. in the instructions of use or at the point of sale.

Computers for biking

The WEEE Directive applies to all electrical and electronic equipment falling under the categories set out in an Annex to the Directive, provided that the equipment concerned is not part of another type of equipment that does not fall within the scope of this Directive. Another Annex to the Directive contains a list of products, which fall under the categories set out in the first Annex. In that list there is only one explicit reference to bicycle equipment, i.e. computers for biking. However, battery lights that are not an integrated part of the bicycle presumably are also subject to the Directive since they belong to the product category of “lighting or equipment for the purpose of spreading or controlling light”.

(*) Source: “Implementation of the Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive in the EU”
Authors: Matthew Savage, Steve Ogilvie, Joszef Slezak, Eniko Artim, Josefina Lindblom (ed.), Luis Delgado (ed.) – Institute for Prospective Technological Studies
EUR Number: 22231 EN