Revised WEEE Directive Sparks Debate in EU

25 January 2012

More of the Eu's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is to be collected and recycled, according to the European Parliament's recently updated legislation.

Under the latest revision to the WEEE Directive, all Member States must increase their collection of e-waste, regardless of whether they already meet the current flat-rate target of 4kg per person per year.

It was also claimed that the update will offer consumers new possibilities to return small waste items to retailers and will also cut red tape for businesses.

The new legislation states that by 2016, most member states will have to collect 45 tonnes of e-waste for every 100 tonnes of e-goods put on sale three years previously. By 2019, this must rise to a rate of 65%, or alternatively a figure comparable to 85% of e-waste generated.

Ten of the member states that need to improve their facilities will have an interim target of 40% and may take until 2021 to reach the final target.

MEPs also negotiated tighter controls on illegal shipments, to prevent e-waste being processed in countries where conditions are often hazardous to workers and the environment.

To achieve this, the new legislation will require that the burden of proof moves from customs officials to exporters, who must properly demonstrate in future that goods are being shipped for repair or reuse as appropriate.

Producers of e-goods will continue to contribute financially towards meeting processing targets.

However, the legislators claimed that the producers will benefit from simplified registration and reporting requirements and will be able to appoint representatives instead of needing to establish a legal seat in each country where they operate.

New measures are also expected to prevent double charging of registration fees within Member States.

Commissioner Potocnik meanwhile welcomed the overwhelming support given by the European Parliament to an updated Directive, and noted the vast majority of MEPs voted in favour of a deal which reflects a similar level of ambition to the Commission's original proposal.

"In these challenging times of economic change and rising prices for raw materials, resource efficiency is where environmental benefits and innovative growth opportunities for European industry come together," commented Potocnik.

"The waste stream with the greatest relevance in this respect is electrical and electronic waste. Today, the European Parliament has given a great boost to this policy, raising the binding collection levels to 85% by 2019," she added.

Once Council formally approves the updated directive and it enters the EU lawbooks, Member States will have 18 months to update their national legislation.

Reaction

According to UK ICT for development charity, Computer Aid International, whilst the updated legislation and the mounting political will behind the pressing problem of e-waste is welcome, it fears that the recast legislation represents a step in the wrong direction.

The charity said that the new text of the WEEE Directive appears to overlook the EU's very own waste hierarchy, which encourages the prevention of waste, followed by the reuse and refurbishment of goods, then value recovery through recycling and finally energy recovery.

Instead, Computer Aid claimed that the recast puts the emphasis on the recovery and recycling processes over and above the less energy intensive reuse path for electronic goods.

"Having higher recycling collection targets and tighter border controls on e-waste exports, will help to reduce the amount of electronic equipment either being sent to landfill or being illegally exported to developing countries," commented Anja ffrench, director of communications at Computer Aid.

"We are nonetheless extremely disappointed that no reuse target has been included The suggested 5% reuse target put forward by the EP earlier in the year was, in our opinion, already far too low."

"The EP has clearly wasted a significant opportunity to improve the environmental and social impact of the Directive," added ffrench.

Another organisation that feels that the compromise on the revision of the Directive is far from being ideal is the European craft and SME employers - UEAPME.

Despite the attempts made to respond to the concerns of small retailers, the organisation points to the measures that retailers will be obliged to take in collecting small waste electric and electronic goods from consumers at no cost and without any requirement on the latter to buy a new product of the same kind in the shop.

UEAPME did however concede that this clause will only apply to retailers with more than 400 square meters of sales area, for small WEEE items and unless an assessment shows that alternative existing collection schemes are likely to be at least as effective.

The organisation said that it would have favoured the continuation of the "one-to-one" system, according to which WEEE can be brought back to the distributor free of charge as long as a new comparable product is bought at the same time.