WEEE directive

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) is a European Community Directive (2012/19/EU), that deals with waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). It became European Law in February 2003 at the same time as the RoHS Directive (2011/65/EU).

The Directive set collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods whilst the RoHS Directive set restrictions on the material content of new electronic equipment on the market.

The Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013 became law in the UK on the 1st of January 2014 and replaced the 2006 Regulations. Those Regulations transposed the main provisions of Directive 2012/19/EU on WEEE which recast the previous Directive 2002/96/EC. The scope of the Regulations were extended in January 2019 to cover further categories of electric and electronic equipment (EEE).

The WEEE Directive aims to contribute to sustainable production and consumption by;

• preventing the creation of WEEE as a first priority.
• contributing to the efficient use of resources and the retrieval of secondary raw materials through re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery.
• improving the environmental performance of everyone involved in the life cycle of EEE.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Directive

• requires the separate collection and proper treatment of WEEE and sets targets for their collection as well as for their recovery and recycling.
• helps European countries fight illegal waste exports more effectively by making it harder for exporters to disguise illegal shipments of WEEE.
• reduces the administrative burden by calling for the harmonisation of national EEE registers and of the reporting format.

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