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Environmental News: Europe behind schedule on WEEE


A survey performed by the WEEE Public Interest Network (WEEE-PIN) shows that the WEEE Directive was transposed late and imperfectly in most of the EU Member States. 

The WEEE-PIN study showed that implementation of the WEEE-Directive in 13 Member States has been late, inconsistent and very diverse. The study also reports a great variety in interpreting definitions, allocating responsibilities and financial mechanisms.

Producers are widely using separate collection systems established by municipalities, but in most cases without paying the full price of the service. This creates unfair competition for EEE producers that are taking up their responsibility individually. In many countries, there is insufficient information about the total cost of collection, transportation and treatment of WEEE.

WEEE-PIN also noticed a lack of information on the achievements such as collected, recycled, recovered and disposed amounts of WEEE. In most countries, local and regional authorities are unsatisfied with the transposition of the WEEE-Directive as they are facing different kinds of problems:

  • regulatory aspects – lack of clarity in regulation, non-existent or limited reuse market
  • operational – too many producers’ compliance schemes, several logistical problems due to disagreement between producers’ organisations and local authorities
  • technical – lack of space at collection sites
  • financial issues – unwillingness of producers to accept local authorities’ costs
  • executive – lack of transparency in tendering procedures and issues with exports.
WEEE Public Interest Network (WEEE-PIN)

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