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New EU Directive on WEEE
07 August 2012
eudirweeeAt the end of July, the new Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Directive 2012/19/EU) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The new law is a recast of the previous one, dated 2002, and it supplements the general waste management legislation.
The aim of the new Directive is to reduce the production of WEEE and promote the re-use, recycle and recovery; at the same time it seeks to improve the environmental performance of the stakeholders involved in the entire WEEE life cycle: producers, distributors, consumers and operators involved in the collection and treatment.

Among the provisions, the Directive introduces a new calculation method for the collection rate, which is the "percentage of the average weight of EEE placed on the market in the three preceding years in that Member State", as opposed to Kilograms per inhabitant used until now. According to this new rate, the future collection target has been set at 45% in 2016, increasing up to 65% in 2019.
Another novelty is the free-of-charge collection of small equipments (not bigger than 25cm) by retail shops with a commercial area of at least 400m2, with no need to buy a new product. This adds up to the one-to-one scheme already in place, according to which distributors selling new products are obliged to collect the used ones given in exchange by the customer.

Member States are expected to comply with the new law by February 14th, 2014.

Please find more information on the matter and the official document in the European Union Law website.
 

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