New WEEE law to be introduced

The EU Parliament is to introduce increased national targets for the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

According to Waste Management World, member states now have to collect up to 85 tonnes of waste for every 100 tonnes of electronic goods put on sale by 2019, compared to 45 tonnes in previous years.

There are also claims that consumers will be able to return small e-waste items to retailers, and that the red tape around participation will be reduced.

Although vendors will still be expected to contribute to waste processing, politicians claim that they will benefit from simplified registration and reporting requirements, although charges for registration will be doubled.

“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,” said the EU Environmental Commissioner Janez 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 per cent by 2019.”