Wide gap between WEEE target proposals

EU – EU ministers have outlined their proposals for a revamp of electrical and electronics waste laws, setting a lower recycling target than that put forward by the European Parliament and Commission.

The EU Environment Council’s proposed revision of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive calls for 65% recycling within eight years of the updated law coming into effect. On February 3, the European Parliament had voted for a target of 85%.

The European Commission confirmed in December 2008 that it wanted to ‘recast’ the WEEE Directive, but it has taken more than two years for politicians from the European Parliament and member state ministers to come up with initial proposals. The directive is designed to put the financial burden for recycling and disposing of electrical and electronic waste on to manufacturers and suppliers.

The law states that waste products should be collected and appropriately recycled, and that consumers should be able to return these used products free of charge. The Environment Council has proposed that member states must collect 45% of the electrical and electronic devices put on the market from four years after the new law comes into effect, to be raised to 65% four years later. However, this is not the end of the negotiations: the next stage is for an agreement to be reached between the European Parliament and other legislative bodies through discussions scheduled to take place in the second half of 2011.

European Parliament’s rapporteur on the dossier, German EU Parliament member Karl-Heinz Florenz, says he is disappointed over the Council agreement. ‘Member states that kick up a fuss about raw material policy tend to be weaklings when it comes to hard and fast EU legislation. The Council’s position is insufficient,’ he reacted. Regarding registration of manufacturers, he said that ‘it seems that member states want to stick to the archaic system of national registration. This would mean heavy burdens for smaller companies facing a lot of red tape with the present system. Parliament wants to save some Euro 66 million a year through the single EU registration’.