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European Union Revises WEEE Target to 85%

7 February 2011

The European Parliament in its plenary session held in Brussels voted in favour of increasing the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) collection target to 85% by 2016, as opposed to its current goal of 65%. The key change to note here is a move from a weight based target to a percentage based goal. The proposal emphasizes the collection of electrical and electronic waste rather than the amount of new material put in the market.

The report put together by MEP Karl-Heinz Florenz, the man behind the revised EU WEEE directive, garnered an impressive support of 580 to 37.

The proposal encourages producers and retailers to take responsibility for B2C WEEE directly from the householder's door. However it will be up to individual member states to include this in to their own state law. This comes as a significant change to the current WEEE Directive, whereby producers only pay for the collection, treatment and recycling of WEEE gathered from collection points. Needless to say, this may come under some opposition from producers and consumers who will have to bear an increase in costs diverted towards infrastructure and collection.

The UK has been consistent in meeting the targets set by the WEEE Directive since the time it came in to force in 2007, which incidentally is the main difference in the proposed new directive. According to Julie-Ann Adams, Managing Director, Really Green Credentials Ltd: "The UK is easily meeting the 4kg per head guideline, however the new target will see an increase up to 18kg per head (for household and non-household combined)". She further adds that the new target of 85% of collected WEEE is good news for the environment, and for recyclers "who can look forward to sufficient WEEE to warrant investing in new plant and technology."

What is left to be seen is how would UK respond to the new WEEE target and the measures it will adopt for the launch of this initiative to increase the collection of WEEE from households. According to Julie-Ann, one of the main challenges the UK will face is keeping track or capturing WEEE data under the current non obligated approach. Currently, only the B2B WEEE that is returned through obligated routes is reported by the Government. The challenge therefore is to encourage more WEEE to be reported and channeled in government recognized streams and in particular keeping it away from landfills. She further explains that there is more than enough capacity for WEEE plants in UK, which puts questions on coping with the high volumes of WEEE to rest.

Following are the proposed amendments at a glance:

1. The actual percentage of recycling has been brought down to 50% and 75% depending on the category of waste.

2. The reuse target is kept to a nominal 5% for certain categories of equipment.

3. A revised selection of WEEE categories are reduced to 6 from 10

4. The registration and reporting process will be further standardized, a move that is said to lower the administrative work and costs.

5. Stricter quality control of reusable waste that is exported.

6. Making it mandatory for retailers to accept small amounts of WEEE.

As things stand today, the proposal along with the amendments is ready to be taken on and voted at a full session of the European Parliament on September 17, and will be followed by resending the report to the Council under the European legislative procedure.

Krishna Buddhiraju