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What are they?
The Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and The Restriction of The
Use Of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directives are designed to tackle
increasing amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
They should
reduce current legislative disparities across Member States, and in turn reduce
trade barriers and increase competition across the single market.
The directives
may be found on the European
Union website:
The WEEE directive encourages and sets criteria and targets for the collection,
treatment, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
It makes producers responsible for financing most of these activities. Private
householders are to be able to return WEEE without charge.
Alongside the WEEE
directive, to prevent the generation of hazardous waste, the RoHS Directive restricts
the use of various heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium)
and brominated flame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDE)) in new electrical and electronic equipment put on the
market from July 2006.
Key Issues for Business in the WEEE and RoHS Directives
. The scope and the specific definitions of what is covered by the directives is an issue of concern for both WEEE and RoHS.
. Cost is an issue of concern for both directives, but in particular for the WEEE directive as producers must provide for the separate collection, treatment and recycling as well as the administration of the WEEE directive. The contribution from individual businesses will be based on market share. Producers have proposed a 'Clearing House', which would handle the administration of registers of producers, compliance with data reporting from producers on their products and consequent market share calculations and allocation of WEEE, which is collected separately from householders to producers. Local Authority Amenity Sites will also need updating to facilitate separate collection.
. Electrical equipment retailers will be required to offer to take back WEEE free of charge. This can be carried out in store or through compliance schemes carrying out similar duties to the proposed clearing houses.
. Opinions from business on whether a visible fee to identify to consumers the cost of recycling goods have varied, the visible fee will be voluntary.
. Maximum Concentration Values - the levels of restricted substances that will be permitted under RoHS.
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