April 16, 2003—Businesses will be required to recycle their old IT and telecommunications equipment, as well as medical devices, under an EU directive that will be law in EU Member States by August 2004. The UK’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) published a consultation paper March 28 beginning a consultation process over the next eighteen months to ensure the legislation is proportionate and cost-effective in achieving its environmental goals.
The EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and the Restricting Certain Hazardous Substances (ROHS) Directive in electrical goods came into effect in February 2003. The measures aim to reduce risks to human health and the environment by improving treatment of electrical waste and reducing hazardous substances in electrical equipment. They should help reduce air pollution, including CO2 and ozone-depleting substances.
The WEEE Directive encourages and sets criteria for the collection, treatment, recycling, and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment. It makes producers responsible for financing most of these activities. There are targets for recycling and recovery of materials and components from the separately collected waste. The main collection, treatment, recovery, and recycling requirements and producer responsibility are deferred for a year after the Directive becomes law in the UK and will come into effect on August 13, 2005. EU Member States are required to collect data on the sales and types of waste electrical equipment collected ahead of this.
The ROHS Directive facilitates the dismantling and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment by restricting the use of hazardous substances used in their manufacture. From July 2006, the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, poly-brominated biphenyls (PBBs) and poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) will be banned in new products. PBBs and PBDEs are flame retardants used in plastics. The Directive provides a small number of exempted processes where the use of these materials will be allowed to continue in certain applications until alternatives are found.
The consultation paper describes what the directives do, and seeks views on applying the directives to such issues as finance and collection. This is the first of at least three opportunities for stakeholders to give their views.
