Making the most of waste electrical and electronic equipment

KEY POINTS

The legislation:

• recasts and repeals the original WEEE directive (Directive 2002/96/EC), which had been substantially amended since its adoption;
• categorises WEEE into different categories, such as small and large equipment temperature exchange equipment, screens, lamps and small IT and telecommunications equipment;
• does not apply to certain types of EEE, notably material for military or space purposes, filament bulbs, active implantable medical devices or means of transport.

European Union (EU) Member States must do the following.

• Encourage cooperation between producers and recyclers to design electrical equipment which can be reused, dismantled or recovered in line with the ecodesign directive (Directive 2009/125/EC).
• Minimise the disposal of WEEE in unsorted municipal waste.
• Allow private households and distributors to return WEEE free of charge.
• Ban the disposal of WEEE collected separately that has not been properly treated.
• Ensure a minimum annual WEEE collection rate. From 2016, this was 45% of the total weight of EEE that was sold in the past 3 years. From 2019, this target was increased to 65%, which is equivalent to a target for collection of 85% of the total WEEE generated. More ambitious targets may be set in the near future.

Bulgaria, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia were allowed to postpone the achievement of the 2019 collection rate until 2021 because of a lack of the necessary infrastructure and their low levels of EEE use.

Member States must also:

• check that all plants treating WEEE are officially licensed;
• establish a register of all companies producing or importing EEE;
• carry out inspections to ensure compliance with the legislation and establish penalties for breaking the law;
• require producers to:
  • meet minimum treatment targets for different WEEE categories,
  • finance the cost of collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal from all users, apart from private households, of products on sale from 13 August 2005,
  • provide information to the public on how WEEE can be returned and collected.

Following the Court’s judgment, to maintain the principle of legal certainty, amending Directive (EU) 2024/884 clarifies that:

• the costs of the management and disposal of waste from photovoltaic panels placed on the market after 13 August 2012 remain with the producer of the EEE; and
• extended producer responsibility for EEE products that had fallen within the scope of the directive as of 15 August 2018 should apply to those products placed on the market after that date.

Implementing acts

In April 2017, the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/699. This sets out the methods to calculate:

• the weight of EEE sold in the market of each Member State;
• the quantity of WEEE generated by weight in each Member State.

In February 2019, the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/290, which sets out the format for registration and reporting of producers of EEE to the register.

In December 2019, the Commission adopted Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2193, which lays down rules for calculating, verifying and reporting data on WEEE minimum recovery targets and establishes data formats.

Review

The Commission is to assess whether there is a need to revise Directive 2012/19/EU and, if so, will present a legislative proposal in that respect by 31 December 2026, accompanied by a thorough socioeconomic and environmental impact assessment.