WEEE comes into full force

THE LONG-AWAITED WEEE came in to force yesterday, barely noticed in the kerfuffle over fags.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive requires manufacturers and retailers to faciltate the recycling of their products. According to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) "E-waste", made up of such junk as PCs, games consoles, microwave ovens and washing machines, is the fastest-growing type of rubbish in the European Union.

The Europe-wide WEEE regulations aim to recyle 4kg of "e-waste" per person. It makes "producers" responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and obliges "distributors" to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge.

Britain has been famously slow to adopt the legislation. The initial Directive was agreed in February 2003, along with the related Directive on Restrictions of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS). It was supposed to be implemented by Member States by 13 August 2004 and come into force by 13 August 2005.

In the UK it was finally adopted at beginning of this year, but full producer responsibility was delayed until 1 July.

The scheme is supposed to be reviewed in 2008, five years after the EU first agreed to implement the legislation. By then, in the UK, it will barely have been running for a year. µ

L'INQ
UK WEEE Regulations (pdf)