The WEEE Directive

The European Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive aims to reduce the amount of WEEE going to landfill, by requiring all manufacturers and producers to take responsibility for what happens to the products they sell at the end of their lives.

It sets mandatory collection targets equal to 65% of the average weight of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market over the two previous years in each Member State. The recycling and recovery targets of such equipment would cover the re-use of whole appliances and weight-base targets would increase by 5%. Targets are proposed also for the recovery of medical devices.

Consumption of EEE / waste arisings

World-wide, the growth rates for the electronics industry in 2012 was 9% higher than in 2011 and in 2010 , suggesting that the personal EF for electronics, albeit very small, will also have increased as people own more and increasingly complex EEE. This also means a higher amount of WEEE. The objective of the EU legislation on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) and of WEEE (introduced into UK law in 2007) is to increase the recycling and/or re-use of such products (kick-starting a circular economy for these, see below) and require the substitution of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium and flame retardants (i.e. polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) with safer alternatives. Despite these rules only one third of electrical and electronic waste in the EU is currently reported as separately collected and appropriately treated. The remainder is still likely to end up in landfill and improper treatment outside the EU and illegal trade of WEEE to non-EU countries is still being found at EU borders. The present collection target of 4kg per person and year does not reflect the actual amount of WEEE occurring in the EU. From 2016, the minimum collection targets have been set at 45% increasing to 65% by 2019 .

Accompanying the WEEE Directive is the Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, which restricts the use of certain toxic substances, such as lead, in printed circuit boards. This directive has been recast and will transposed into UK law by 2 January 2013. See the BIS webiste for more information