Tag: weee

The European Parliament yesterday (19 January) approved legislation to strengthen the recovery of computers and other electronic and electrical waste while tightening exports of used goods to developing countries, ending months of hard-fought negotiations.

The European Parliament and the 27 EU member states are set for difficult negotiations over the recast of the bloc’s electronic waste directive as MEPs insist on ambitious targets for collecting and recycling discarded fridges, phones and other e-waste than the member states can accept.

The European Parliament backed new targets for collecting and recycling electronic waste yesterday (3 February), but said producers alone could not be left to cover the cost of collecting e-waste from private households.

The EU needs to increase checks on electronic waste exports to avoid illegal dumping and stop the shipment of valuable and sometimes rare raw materials outside the bloc, MEPs in the European Parliament's environment committee said, voting to update EU rules on the disposal of waste electronic equipment yesterday (22 June).

As the EU institutions discuss updating the bloc's 2003 electronic waste directive, researchers argue that the hasty recast ignores important topics, such as scarcity of some key raw materials, which have since climbed up the EU agenda.

As the EU prepares to review its electronic waste legislation, industry is calling for a reality check of a European Commission proposal setting binding waste collection targets for manufacturers and making them pay for collecting consumers' scrap.

Consumer electronic manufacturers including Sony, Nokia and HP, and NGOs ranging from Greenpeace to Friends of the Earth, have called on the Commission to take action against 11 member states that have transposed the WEEE directive without making producers fully responsible for the recycling of electrical and electronic products.

The directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) aims to increase the re-use, recycling and recovery of waste from a variety of consumer products ranging from light bulbs to PCs, mobile phones, medical devices and sports equipment. The WEEE directive is complemented by a directive on the Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. The two directives came into force in 2003 but have come under fire for being too complicated, too costly and even for being impossible to implement.

On 18 December, the Parliament and the council gave their final approval on the draft directives on the electronic waste (WEEE) and on the use of hazardous substances in electrical equipment (ROHS).

On 10 April 2002, the European Parliament adopted its opinion on the draft directives on electronic waste and hazardous substances. Contrary to the Council's recommendation, the MEPs voted for individual producer responsibility and raised the compulsory collection targets.

On 21 March, the European Parliament's Environment Committee went against industry's demands and voted for collective responsibility of orphan waste in the WEEE directive.

On 19 February, the European Parliament's Environment Committee discussed a draft recommendation for the secon reading of the WEEE directive.

In the run-up to the second reading in the Parliament of the electronic waste directive, environmental NGOs are asking MEPs to tighten up the common position of the Council.

Environment ministers expected to reach five common positions and four council conclusions

European Parliament's environment committee adopts in first reading two reports on electrical and electronic waste