Compliance & Risks has been tracking and monitoring electronic waste/ e-waste/WEEE in the EU and globally since our inception in 2000. Our coverage of WEEE provides subscribers with a global perspective of their compliance obligations, along with guidance documents, policy papers and commentaries from leading experts and international organizations.
WEEE or e-waste legislation aims to protect the environment and human health by ensuring that waste from electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is properly managed. It includes requirements for the collection, storage, sorting, transport, treatment, preparation for reuse, recycling and disposal of WEEE.
These requirements typically apply to EEE including:
Large household appliances
Small household appliances
Information Technology (IT) equipment
Telecommunication equipment
Lighting equipment
Electrical and electronic tools
Sports equipment
Medical devices
Monitoring and control instruments
Automatic dispensers
Gas discharge lamps
It is based on the principle of "extended producer responsibility" in that the responsibility for the management of WEEE is placed on producers that place EEE on the market. This means that manufacturers and importers must finance the collection, treatment, recycling, and environmentally sound disposal of e-waste from their own products. Manufacturers must also design and produce EEE that facilitates the re-use, dismantling, and recovery of WEEE, its components, and materials.
WEEE regulations provide for separate waste collection and the marking of products with specific product labeling such as the "crossed out wheelie symbol," indicating that EEE must not be thrown into general household or municipal waste or disposed to landfill. Distributors or retailers may be required to take-back WEEE free of charge on a like-for-like basis which can entail setting up collection points to allow customers to take-back their products at their end-of-life.
To fulfill their financial, reporting, registration and other obligations producers may be required to either set up an individual waste scheme and submit a WEEE management plan, join a collective WEEE producer compliance scheme or participate in a product stewardship program, depending on the requirements in different countries and jurisdictions.
Compliance & Risks' coverage is historically comprehensive and global and includes,
but is not limited to:
EU: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive 2012/19/EU (and EU Member State implementations)
Brazil: Mandatory Reverse Logistics System for Household Electrical and Electronic Products and their Components, Decree No. 10.240, 2020
Colombia: Environmental and Sustainable Development of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Management Systems, Draft Resolution, December 2019
France: Anti-waste and Promotion of Circular Economy, Law 2020-105
Ghana: Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control and Management, Law, 2016
India: E-Waste (Management) Rules, G.S.R. 801(E), 2022
USA: California: Electronic Waste Recycling Act (EWRA) Senate Bill 20 Enacted, 2003
Hungary: Rules for the Operation of the Extended Producer Responsibility System, Decree 80/2023
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