Legislation
This section lists the two pieces of formal legislation that relate to WEEE – the UK Regulations and the EU Directive that caused the UK Regulations to come into being. Additional guidance has been issued from official and non-official sources – see Members Area for more details.
The latest update to the WEEE legislation (SI 3454) was released on 6th December 2007 and is due to come into force on 1st January 2008. The changes put in place by this updated legislation, relate to technical fixes pertaining to the operations between the Environment Agencies and the Schemes and effectively make no impact on the scope or obligations of non-household Producers.
THE WASTE ELECTRONIC AND ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT (Producer Responsibility) Regulations
The Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (Producer Responsibility) Regulations 2006 were laid before parliament on 12th December 2006 and came into force on 2nd January 2007. They require obligated Producers to label all EEE products from 1st April 2007 and to pay for the recovery and recycling of WEEE from the 1st July 2007. A copy of the Regulations can be downloaded from here.
Under the legislation, UK Producers take financial responsibility for certain EEE products at the end of their useful life. The legislation requires Producers already placing EEE items (that are within scope of the legislation and for which they are obligated), to register with an approved Producer Compliance Scheme (such as B2B Compliance) . If you are an obligated Producer, and have not yet joined a Compliance Scheme, please contact us confidentially on 01691 676 124 (Option 1), so we can expedite the process of ensuring your company’s legal compliance
Orgalime (the European Federation of Trade Associations - which acts a focal lobbying point for those Associations in the European Parliament) has published "A Practical Guide to Understanding the Scope of the WEEE and ROHS Directives". The illustrated guide provides interpretations, criteria and decision trees, whilst focusing on the "grey areas" that stem from the WEEE and ROHS Directives.
Copies of the Guide can be downloaded in electronic format upon registration at the following website: www.orgalime.org/publications/guides.htm
THE WASTE ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (WEEE) DIRECTIVE
The primary purpose of the Directive is the control of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and to require the re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery of such waste so as to reduce volumes being disposed to landfill or incineration. Please click here for a copy of the WEEE Directive, and the subsequent Amendment.
The Directive lays a duty upon Members States and is issued under Article 175 of the Treaty of Rome allowing each MS to transpose the Directive into its own regulations using their own interpretation – and which consequently cause the national regulations to vary from MS to MS. For this reason there cannot be a single pan-European compliance scheme. For a full briefing on all aspects of WEEE, please book on one of our free half day strategic seminars here.
