Allowing for an 18 month transposition period the recast of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive could become
A draft report was published in February. Orgalime, the European Federation of major trade associations has responded and the reply includes input from such as GAMBICA. The latter has proposed amendments to limit liabilities on Producers of Medical Devices (category 8) and Monitoring and Control Instruments (category 9).
Key issues include the widening of scope to encompass all EEE although exemptions will apply. As a result Producers would be liable for a wider range of equipment than at present and this would draw in a new range of companies who are currently exempt.
It is proposed to reduce the ten named categories to five. This does mean however that, for example, exceptions such as veterinary that is not covered under medical devices will be brought in under one of the two categories - large appliances or small appliances.
However, this change may remove the ability of
The Environment Agency has published the latest collection figures for 2009, a year that saw just under 10% less EEE placed on the market than in 2008.
The tonnage of household consumer WEEE collected in 2009 increased from 30.66% to 36.66% but is still below the 65% collection target proposed by the EU.
There is particular concern around the recycling of small mixed WEEE such as toasters, irons and kettles which are more likely to end up in the refuse bin because of their size. Local authorities need to develop separate collection methods such as providing "electrobanks" allowing small WEEE to go into a recycling bin for further separation later.
Directive Decoder
Gary Nevison, Head of Legislation at 
Subscribe to this blog's feed