What is the WEEE Directive?
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is European legislation soon to become UK law. The WEEE Directive became European law on 16th July 2005.
WEEE is comprehensive and wide ranging and will affect manufacturers, importers, retailers, consumers and re-users of electrical and electronic goods. Once transposed into UK law the WEEE regulations will place a responsibility on producers to pay the costs of collection, treatment, recycling and recovery of WEEE.
Objectives of the WEEE Directive
The directive aims to deliver a more sustainable approach to managing electrical and electronic waste by increasing the volume of material recycled and reducing the amount sent to landfill. In essence it will enforce the recovery and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment at the end of life.
All producers will be required to meet the requirements of the regulations, regardless of size or market share. Producers are defined as those manufacturing, importing or selling under own label electrical and electronic equipment.
Who does it affect?
The WEEE Directive affects all those involved in manufacturing, selling, distributing, recycling or treating electrical and electronic equipment.
What stage are we at with the WEEE Directive?
Although the WEEE Directive is law the infrastructure to implement the WEEE Directive is currently being established.
The associated costs of WEEE compliance are also being finalised. The UK Government estimates it will cost UK companies up to £455 million to comply with the directive. Individual companies could incur costs of 1% to 4% of sales.
There are a number of hurdles that the legislation needs to overcome, chiefly who is regarded as the ‘producer’ and how associated costs are apportioned and how this is legislated. This is still ongoing…
What do I need to do?
Nothing as yet, however it would be advisable for companies to familiarize themselves with pending legislation and start to make necessary arrangements to accommodate any changes that they may have to introduce to comply.
What is the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive?
RoHS takes its scope broadly from the WEEE Directive and sets out to restrict the use of hazardous substances and contribute to the environmentally sound recovery and disposal of WEEE. The RoHS Directive became European law on 16th July 2005.
Objectives of the RoHS Directive
It is recognized that the WEEE Directive cannot eradicate all EEE from entering landfill. The role of RoHS is to reduce harmful substances at source, ensuring that these hazardous substances are not leached into the environment by equipment, which inevitably fails to be recycled.
Who does it affect?
The RoHS Directive affects all those involved in manufacturing, selling, distributing, recycling or treating electrical and electronic equipment.
What stage are we at with the RoHS Directive?
The RoHS Directive and the UK RoHS regulations come into force on 1 July 2006.
What do I need to do?
Nothing at present unless you are a manufacturer.
What is the Hazardous Waste Regulation?
The Hazardous Waste Regulation 2005 replaces the Special Waste Regulation 1996. The new legislation now incorporates additional forms of waste previously not classified as hazardous e.g. Computer monitors, VDU’s etc
The purpose of the Hazardous Waste Regulation is to provide an effective system of control for these wastes and to ensure that they are soundly managed from their point of production to their final destination for disposal or recovery.
Objectives of the Hazardous Waste Regulation
The objectives behind the implementation of the Hazardous Waste Regulation include:
- Implementation of the provisions of the Hazardous Waste Directive
- Maintenance of the controls imposed by the previous regulations
- Achievement of a cradle to grave audit trail
- Deterring illegal disposal of hazardous waste
- Ensuring records are kept of the disposal of hazardous waste at landfill
Who does it affect?
Any business that disposes of more than 200kg of hazardous waste per annum is affected. In simple terms if your company disposes of 15 or more CRT monitors per annum, then you are affected. Companies have to register each individual site that disposes of more than 200kg of hazardous waste with the Environmental Agency.
As part of the registration process you will be allocated a SIC and premises code specific to your type of business, which you must quote when passing to waste carriers.
What stage are we at with the Hazardous Waste Regulation?
The Hazardous Waste Regulation became UK law on the 16th July 2005.
What do I need to do?
You need to register each of your company sites that will retire redundant IT equipment with the environment agency. Registration currently cost £23.00 per site. The URL for registration is www.environment-agency.gov.uk/newrulesonwaste. You will need to provide your unique SIC code, which CDL can assist you with.
WEEE update
The government says it is at last ready to say when it plans to implement the long-overdue European directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
The directive will now come into force on July 1, 2007, according to energy minister Malcom Wicks, who also set out the final proposals for how the directive will be implemented.
Originally, it was to have become law in the UK in June 2005. In August last year, the latest of many delays saw the implementation date pushed from January 2006 to June 2006. Then, in December, the government said it would miss even this deadline, and admitting that even the draft regulations would not be published until the spring of this year.
It feels more like summer to us, but at this stage, it is probably best not to complain. The plans are here, at last, and businesses will have until October 17 to let the government know what they think.
Plans include:
- A national Distributor Takeback Scheme, with dedicated facilities to which people can take their old kit;
- Authorised Treatment Facilities, to deal with the recycling, and keep producers up to date with how much of their old products have been returned
- Accredited reprocessing/recycling facilities who will provide evidence of reprocessing to producers;
- An end-of-year settlement to ensure producers are able to meet their obligations via an "Exchange system;
- A voluntary approach for producers to show the cost of handling historical WEEE.
Producers will also have to sign up to approved compliance schemes.
