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Used Equipment

2005-02-28
The Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is designed to address the issue of short product life-cycles, and encourage correct, environmentally sound disposal, ultimately.

This Directive sets out measures that aim, firstly, at the prevention of waste electrical and electronic equipment, secondly at the re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery of such wastes, and thirdly at minimising the risks and impacts to the environment associated with the treatment and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment It is also the aim of this Directive to harmonise national measures concerning waste electrical and electronic equipment in order to ensure the functioning of the internal market and to avoid obstacles to trade and distortion of competition within the community.

For the purposes of the Directive:

1. "Electrical and Electronic Equipment" means equipment which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement of such currents and fields falling under the categories set out in Annex I A and designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1000 Volt for alternating current and 1500 Volt for direct current. Electrical and Electronic Equipment includes all components, sub-assemblies and consumables, which are part of the product;

2. "Waste electrical and electronic equipment" means electrical or electronic equipment which is a waste within the meaning of Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442/EEC;

3. "Prevention" means measures aiming at the reduction of the quantity and the harmfulness for the environment of waste electrical and electronic equipment, their materials and substances;

4. "Re-use" means any operation by which waste electrical and electronic equipment or its components are used for the same purpose for which they were conceived. "Re-use" includes the continued use of waste electrical and electronic equipment, which is returned to collection points, distributors, recyclers or manufacturers;

5. "Recycling" means the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes but excluding energy recovery. Energy recovery means the use of combustible waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat;

6. "Recovery" means any of the applicable operations provided for in Annex II B to Directive 75/442/EEC;

7. "Disposal" means any of the applicable operations provided for in Annex II A to Directive 75/442/EEC;

8. "Treatment" means any activity after the waste electrical and electronic equipment has been handed over to a facility for de-pollution, disassembling, shredding, recovery or disposal and any other operation carried out for the recovery and/or the disposal of the waste electrical or electronic equipment and its components;

9. "Producer" means manufacturer of electrical and electronic equipment or professional importer of electrical and electronic equipment into a Member State;

10. "Distributor" means anyone who provides a product on a commercial basis to the party who is going to use that product;

11. "Waste electrical and electronic equipment from private households" means waste from private households, as well as commercial, industrial, institutional and other waste which, because of its nature and quantity, is similar to waste from private households;

12. "Dangerous substance or preparation" means any substance or preparation which has to be considered dangerous under Directive 67/548/EEC or Directive 88/379/EEC.

CATEGORIES OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT COVERED BY THIS DIRECTIVE

1.Large Household appliances 2.Small Household appliances 3.IT-Equipment 4.Telecommunication 5.Radio, Television, Electro/acoustic Musical instruments 6.Lighting equipment 7.Medical equipment systems 8.Monitoring and control instruments 9.Toys 10.Electrical and Electronic tools 11.Automatic Dispensers

The thrust of this dual legislation is to make collection, treatment and recovery of electronic equipment at its end of life mandatory, with the producer of the equipment being responsible for both the management of the processes and their financing. In parallel, it aims to prevent the generation of hazardous waste by limiting the use of certain substances in new electrical and electronic equipment from 1 January 2008 onwards.

The aims of the WEEE Directive are straightforward:

* prevention of waste from WEEE;

* re-use and recycling of WEEE;

* improvement in the environmental performance of all economic operators involved in the EEE life cycle.

One of the key themes underpinning the WEEE Directive is Producer Responsibility. Taxpayers have historically picked up the waste disposal burden and so the EC is now passing the buck - quite literally - to producers. If producers have to pay the full disposal costs, the EC believe they will reduce costs through better product design to make products less environmentally damaging and easier to recycle. Simply trying to pass costs to customers will not work in this competitive marketplace. And last, but not least, is the overall EU target of sustainable development.

The EC has calculated the overall costs of implementing WEEE as adding between 1-3% to the costs of electrical and electronic products, dependent upon the degree of difficulty in collection and recycling. Electronic selling - internet trading - is also included as falling under Producer Responsibility, although how this is to be enforced is not discussed.

The WEEE Directive will impact upon the electrical and electronic products supply chain. To meet the requirements of this new Directive, the supply chain will need to be extended to include recovery from consumers, recycling and waste management. Clear supply chain audit trails of the purchase, use and disposal of products will be needed to monitor the value recovery and to limit the liability for the costs of disposal and recycling at the end of products' life.

Used IT equipment can be refurbished and reused or sold. Unwanted or faulty equipment can be dismantled to recover components for resale, before the metals, glass and plastic can be recycled. Monitors, however, are harder to deal with. Lead and phosphors in the cathode ray tube are hazardous, and fire retardants in plastic casings make them difficult and costly to recycle. There is no-one in the UK currently recycling monitors or TVs to the requirements of the WEEE Directive.

And even though the option of reselling IT equipment is attractive, there are potential risks involved, such as the disclosure to the new user of confidential data left in the memory, the new user injuring themselves from faulty electrical connections, and the unauthorised transfer of licensed software. Poor-quality second-hand goods may also taint brand image and a company's reputation. Such issues are not covered in the WEEE Directive, but have been tackled by ICER (the Industry Council for Electronic & Electrical Equipment Recycling) who have produced a Code of Practice for IT Equipment Refurbishment now adopted by the Department for Education and Employment. ICER also has an accreditation scheme for electrical and electronic equipment recyclers.

There are some concerns that continue to plague the WEEE Directive. How electronic trading is to be controlled is unclear. There remains a risk that WEEE will be dumped outside the EU for processing in countries with poorer regulation and lesser standards. And by setting recovery and recycling targets against a rapidly growing waste stream, extrapolation shows that, for example, 75% of IT recovered and 65% re-used or recycled leaves 51% of WEEE either not recovered or not recycled. Given that the amount of WEEE is set to double by 2010, this means that the amount now being disposed of to landfill and incineration may well stay the same. The Directive will now go before the Members of the European Parliament for discussion and possible amendment before being officially adopted - probably within 15 months. Member States have up to 18 months to adopt thereafter - hence the majority of targets set for January 2006. Which means producers, distributors, recyclers and governments need to start planning now.