EU retailers must take back used electronic equipment without charge
New EU law will force electronic stores to process waste electronic equipment
By Jennifer Baker | Published: 10:15, 21 January 2012
The European Parliament has apporved plans to force large electronic retailers to take back old equipment.
The new rules are as part of a shakeup of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and will gradually come into force over the next seven years.
Only one third of electrical and electronic waste in the European Union is separately collected and appropriately treated and the revised directive will increase the collection target from its current 4kg per capita to around 20kg per capita by 2020. By 2020, it is estimated that the volume of electronic equipment will increase to 12 million tons and the EU authorities want to see 85% of that collected and treated.
Related Articles on Techworld
The retailer take-back plan means that larger electrical goods stores, with a shop space of 400 square metres or larger, will have to accept small electronic items, such as mobile phones, free of charge, without making users purchase a new product.
Welcoming yesterday's vote, EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said: "Proper treatment of WEEE is important to prevent harm to human health and the environment, and its systematic collection is the precondition for professional recycling of the valuable raw materials like gold, silver, copper and rare metals, contained in our used TVs, laptops and mobile phones."
The revised directive also includes a clampdown on illegal exports of waste electronic equipment. Equipment that is no longer under warranty can only be exported to non-OECD countries if it has been certified to be fully functional and sent properly.
"It is long overdue that we stop making developing countries the dumping ground for our hazardous waste," said Green member of the European Parliament, Michalis Tremopoulos.
