Law will force electronic firms to fund recycling of used goods

Date: 17/10/02

By Karen Carstens

AFTER haggling late into the night, European parliamentarians and EU governments finally reached agreement last week on a sweeping new directive that will make companies pay for the recycling of the electronic goods they produce.

They gave the green light to an EU-wide system introducing the mandatory collection, re-use and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment, known as WEEE. The new system is expected to lead to price rises between 1 and 3, depending on the size of the article.

'We have reached a decision ensuring that a mountain of more than six million tonnes of waste that accrues annually will be recycled in an environmentally sound way,' said Karl-Heinz Florenz, the Parliament's rapporteur on the issue. 'The directive takes into account the interests of consumers, environmentalists and industry.'

Under the new directive, recycling quotas of between 50 for small household appliances, such as toasters and vacuum cleaners, and 75 for larger appliances, like refrigerators, must be reached by 31 December 2006 at the latest.

So-called 'clever chips' used in electrical and electronic equipment by many major maufacturers to prevent them from being re-used or recycled proved to be the real sticking point that kept all parties gathered at the Council of Ministers from concluding their final talks.

British MEP Chris Davies, the Liberals' environment spokesman, said that every item on the agenda had been resolved by 2am, except the clever chips issue.

He wanted to ensure that member states, in the wording of the new directive, not only 'encourage' producers to stop making such devices, but take appropriate measures so that producers do not prevent WEEE from being re-used or recycled 'through specific design features or manufacturing processes'.

Davies said: 'There was much cajoling and shouting by my colleagues (it was very late) but eventually the rapporteur Karl-Heinz

Florenz seized the initative and sought an informal meeting to discuss the issue with some of the government representatives most opposed.

'We ended up making law in a thicket of people at 2.30am,' he added.

According to the new law, member states will have to set up collection systems for waste electrical and electronic equipment and achieve a binding target of 4 kilograms per capita/per year for the separate collection of WEEE from private households.

All costs from the collection points onwards will be covered by producers, including the funding of centres to process the waste.

'This is the first time in the history of the EU that the individual producer is explicitly responsible for his own products,' Florenz said.

Producers will also have to provide a financial guarantee to ensure funds are available for recycling. The funds from the guarantee could be put into a blocked account or an insurance fund for future use.

The producer will, however, also have the choice of either managing the waste on an individual basis or participating in collective schemes. This is an important departure from existing schemes in which producers pay a flat-rate contribution for the recycling of waste from so-called historical products.ZVEI, Germany's Frankfurt-based electrical and electronic manufacturers' association, praised this aspect of the directive.

'This prevents costs for the historical products of producers that are no longer on the market or can no longer be identified from becoming the collective burden of established, brand-name producers (in these markets),' said ZVEI environmental expert Otmar Frey, in a statement.

'Our motto is: 'As many individual elements as possible, as many collective elements as necessary', he added.

An assistant to Florenz predicted that the minor price increase affecting consumers will be balanced by an overall reduction in other recycling costs, such as now-obsolete fees to have ageing appliances picked up by city clean-up crews.

And, he added, because the onus is now on producers to come up with creative solutions to reduce their own costs, the extra fees are expected to drop over time.

According to the European Commission, WEEE is the fastest growing part of the waste stream today. Every European produces on average about 14 kilograms per year of such wastes, 90 of which is landfilled or incinerated without any pre-treatment.

In a related directive, the Parliament and the Council also agreed to restrict the use of hazardous substances in new electronic equipment via a ban on four heavy metals (lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium) and the brominated flame retardents PBB and PBDE from 1 July 2006.

European parliamentarians and EU governments have finally reached agreement on a sweeping new directive that will make companies pay for the recycling of the electronic goods they produce.