Impact of WEEE Directive << Back to Main News Page Added: Monday, 18 February 2008 July 2007 saw the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive come into force in the UK. This directive covers ten categories of electronics and gives manufacturers and importers of electrical goods sold on the UK market a legal duty to fund the collection and recycling of waste electronics through a system of producer responsibility. The regulations bring the UK in line with Europe ’s WEEE Directive of 2003.  37 producer compliance schemes have been set up, which arrange for enough WEEE to be collected from designated collection facilities (DCFs) to meet each producer’s recycling requirements under the regulations. DCFs are generally either local authority civic amenity sites or waste transfer stations - although they may be privately or community run.  The exact amount each producer must have recycled relates to the tonnage of new products they put on the market each year. The costs of complying are met by producers through membership fees.   Both DCFs and recyclers of WEEE issue evidence documentation to prove that received goods have been recycled to meet the regulations and environmental protection conditions.   Retailers also have a responsibility under the directive to contribute towards the collection fees for unwanted appliances. They must either join the national Distributors’ Deposit Scheme, which then funds the upgrade of official collection sites for WEEE, or offer their own in-store ‘takeback’ service for customers to return old goods for recycling when buying similar new products.  Almost all English waste disposal authorities have now finalised arrangements with a producer compliance scheme to take household waste electronic goods, and the WEEE Settlement Centre - which co-ordinates recycling evidence for WEEE producer responsibility - has gone live.   During 2008, Europe is carrying out a review of the WEEE Directive, which may see new recycling targets or objectives met. For more information about the WEEE Directive, take a look at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/weee