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Legislation
Proposed Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) This proposed Directive addresses Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Manufacturers or importers of these goods would have sole responsibility for ensuring the recovery of end of life equipment. They would also be responsible for the collection of commercial WEEE and would have to be ‘encouraged’ by Member States to set up take back schemes for household WEEE. The European Parliament and the European Council of Ministers have recently reached an agreement on the Directive. They agreed to a target of 4kg per inhabitant per year for the separate collection of waste electronics from private households. All costs from the collection, treatment, re-use and recycling are to be covered by the producers, who will have to provide a financial guarantee at the moment a new product is put on the market. The guarantee will ensure that the management of the waste will be paid for once the equipment reaches the end of its life. The new Regulations will allow producers to either manage their obligated waste individually or in collective schemes. The new Regulations
include a restriction on the use of hazardous substances in new electronic
equipment. The Directive will ban the use of heavy metals lead, cadmium,
mercury and hexavalent chromium in the manufacture of electrical goods
as well as the brominated flame retardants PBB and PBDE from July 2006. Proposed Directive on End of Life Vehicles (ELV) This proposed EC Directive deals with arrangements for recovering End-of-Life-Vehicles (ELV’s). The Directive should have been implemented by 21st April 2002 and required the UK to put in place arrangements to recycle waste vehicles, including those already on the road at the time it came into force. The UK has missed the deadline for compliance. Some 8-9 million cars are discarded each year in the EC, producing about 1.9 million tonnes of waste in the form of shredder residue. The Directive's aim is to reduce waste from old vehicles and to achieve 95% reuse or recovery by 2015. From July 2002 car manufacturers were required to provide free take-back facilities for all new vehicles placed on the market and are liable for recovery costs. From 2007 this rule will apply to all vehicles, including those cars already on the road today. The issue of who will be responsible in the interim has been the subject of much debate. The UK Government has confirmed that it is end-users, and not producers, who will have to pay the cost of disposal if their car was on the market before the 1st July 2002 cut-off date. A consultation is currently in progress on how the UK will implement the ELV Directive. Please note: These statements are for your assistance and may not be complete for your company’s particular circumstances. If in any doubt you are advised to consult your local Groundwork office or the Environment Agency to ensure that any action you take is within the law. Environment
Agency:
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