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Proposed WEEE revisions signals electronic waste crackdown

The European Commission has issued proposed revisions to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive which would impose recycling targets on IT and electrical equipment manufacturers, according to vnunet.com.

Manufacturers would also be financially responsible for household collection of electronic waste.

However, the plans have been criticised by the European Information, Communications and Consumer Electronics Technology Industry Association (EICTA), which has called them "unrealistic and unreachable".

EICTA director general Mark MacGann told the website: "The commission has seriously underestimated the volume of electrical and electronic waste collected and recycled by non-producer organisations."

He added that there were "large flows" of electronic waste outside of the producer-funded WEEE system because of simple economic laws of supply and demand.

Meanwhile, the Environment Agency (EA) has said it is concerned over WEEE schemes that are reliant on trading.

According to letsrecycle.com, the EA has said that although all schemes did eventually meet their obligations for the 2007 compliance period, several are still being investigated in relation to "technical failures".

Posted on 05/12/2008

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