Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
May 2003 was the end of the Department of Trade and Industry’s consultation period about two closely related European Community Directives: the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (or Weee) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (or ROHS). The Directives came into force on 13 February 2003 and Britain (and the other Member States) must turn them into law by 13 August 2004. But the full force of the new laws won’t bite immediately.
On your cycle
The Weee Directive is about collecting, treating, recycling, and recovering waste electrical and electronic equipment. Manufacturers have some responsibility for this. (The main producer responsibilities, however, will not come into effect until 13 August 2005).
The ROHS Directive is about dismantling and recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment. It restricts the use of certain hazardous substances – like lead, mercury and so on - in manufacturing.
The lawmakers say the pair of Directives (is there another collective name for Europe’s output?) will improve the environment. The Directives should, we are told, "reduce risks to human health and environment through the proper treatment of waste and a reduction in hazardous substances". And we should also expect better conservation of raw materials and energy.
Why me?
If you are not involved in the electrical or electronic industries you may believe this has nothing to do with you. But Weee and ROHS are the type of ticking bomb legislation that will have a huge impact on most of our daily lives. Why?
First, someone has to pay for this batch of environmental law. Producers will have to pay out so unless there’s a new form of economics in town, they will need to do something to recover their costs. To put it another way, the price of electrical and electronic goods will rise. And that affects consumers and businesses. How many homes or businesses without electronic or electrical goods do you know?
Second, even if you do not buy any new electronic or electrical goods, you will no longer be able to get rid of old goods in a quick trip to the local dump. Remember the assorted recycling skips at your local supermarket car park? There’s no immediate risk of a double sized skip appearing and inviting you to leave your unwanted technology. Instead, you will probably have to use a recycling service or a "reusing technology" business. (Although charging people to get rid of rubbish may encourage fly-dumping). Britain has not yet fully endorsed the recycling approach to life that other countries take for granted. These Directives might just bring us up to speed.
Begin the beginning again
It’s worth stressing the role that recycling and reusing business will have. Most of us will be familiar with the concept of recycling but reusing is something of a Cinderella phenomenon by comparison, at least on the surface. Reusing is where somebody takes old technology and passes it on to somebody who can use it. For example, passing on working (but ageing) computers to charities or less well developed countries.
For businesses the choice will often be about cost: will it be cheaper to deal with a recycling business or a reusing business? And which will be easier to deal with – or safer? Don’t forget that long lost data on those old computers. If you dispose of such equipment carelessly you could find yourself in breach of the Data Protection Act.
Perhaps its just as well it is going to take some time for the Government and the industries to put everything in place. If you are an optimist it means we have lots of time to get the environmental, convenience, economic and commercial balance right. If you are a cynic it means for a few years we can stick our collective heads in the sand and hope the inevitable doesn’t happen. If you’ve not made your mind up yet, here’s the provisional timetable and some links with more information:
- 13 August 2004: Member States make their laws.
- 13 August 2005: Producer responsibility into force.
- July 2006: ROHS substance ban into force.
- 31 December 2006: target date for recycling targets (70% target for computers!).
Links
The WEEE and ROHS Directives cover a very wide range of products, although some are exempt from certain requirements. The categories covered are:
- large and small household appliances,
- IT and telecommunication equipment,
- consumer equipment (TV, video, hi-fi etc.),
- lighting, electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large stationary industrial tools),
- toys, leisure and sports equipment,
- medical devices (exempt from ROHS and re-use and recovery targets under WEEE),
- monitoring and control instruments (exempt from ROHS), and
- automatic dispensers.
Why do we have these directives?
These two directives aim to improve our environment. They will bring a number of specific benefits to the UK in comparison to current practice. Work commissioned by the DTI (Ecobalance/PWC 1999, updated 2002) confirms this. Implementing the Directives’ requirements should reduce risks to human health and environment through the proper treatment of waste and a reduction in hazardous substances. We also expect benefits through the conservation of raw materials and of energy resources. For most of the products covered by the study, we found that the Directives should lead to a reduction in air pollution, including CO2 and ozone depleting substances, and water toxicity by more than 50% when compared to existing practice. In particular, the WEEE Directive will help us to divert between 133,000 and 339,300 tonnes of waste from landfill.
This article was written by Ellis Simpson, Partner, of
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors. It is used with permission.
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