EU Parliament plenary agrees WEEE recast (finally)

19 JANUARY 2012

After a couple of years of wrangling, the European Parliament and Commission have agreed a compromise position on the the new WEEE Directive. At a plenary session today, MEP's voted in favour of the amendments that will see targets introduced for WEEE collection based on what producers place onto the market. This is a complete change from the current system whereby producers must pay the collection and treatment costs for household WEEE that is collected, but where there are no targets for recycling growth.

The key amendments are as follows:

• By 2016, Member States will be required to collect 45% of of the annual average of what is placed on the market in the previous 3 years. It is assumed that this will include both household and non-household. At present, around 40% of household WEEE is recorded as collected, but only about 5% of non-household, an overall average of 32%.
• By 2019, this will rise to 65%.
  • These targets are what the Commission originally favoured, but Parliament wanted a target based on the amount of WEEE arising. The compromise is therefore that Member States will have the option of an alternative target system of collecting at least 85% of waste electrical electrical equipment. How this will be measured, no-one is quite sure, but the UK's position strongly favours the 45/65% targets.
• Retailers above 400sq.ft will be required to offer take back of any electrical waste regardless of whether they sell an equivalent of not. Whether the UK will continue to allow the take-back opt-out provided under current Regulations is not known.
• The Commission will adopt a harmonised supply of information ie will attempt to standardise the data gathering process across Europe. 
• Exporters will see tighter testing and documentation requirements.

More details will emerge shortly, but there has already been criticism that these targets are not challenging enough and that the amendments do not focus enough on reuse.