EU WEEE Directive: Introduction For Importers To Europe

For companies that import electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) into Europe, another important to-do is complying with the EU WEEE Directive that tackles E-waste or WEEE.

We’ll introduce the EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, how it affects you, what is needed to comply with it, the registration process, and more.

What is the EU WEEE Directive?

The EU WEEE Directive is legislation that aims to reduce the environmental impact of discarded electrical and electronic products (also known as WEEE or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). Introduced in 2003 and revised in 2012, it provides guidelines for recovering, reusing, and recycling WEEE in the EU (and wider Europe).

Its key objectives, according to the EU Commission, are:

• Preventing the creation of WEEE as a priority.
• Contributing to the efficient use of resources and the retrieval of secondary raw materials through re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery.
• Improving the environmental performance of everyone involved in the life cycle of EEE.
• Requires the separate collection and proper treatment of WEEE and sets targets for their collection, recovery and recycling
• Helps European countries fight illegal waste exports more effectively by making it harder for exporters to disguise illegal shipments of WEEE

Producers, distributors, and importers of electrical and electronic products are all responsible for their products’ lifecycles (from production to disposal) if they put them on the market in Europe, with the onus placed on reducing, reusing, and recycling WEEE. If this successfully happens, it won’t need to go to landfills or incinerators and fewer harmful substances will enter the soil, water, air, or food chain. It works hand-in-hand with RoHS as well, as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive restricts numerous hazardous substances from being used in the manufacture of EEE products in the first place, meaning that complying with RoHS also makes WEEE directive compliance more straightforward as reuse and recycling will be safer and easier.

What does WEEE labelling look like?

You may recognise the fairly common “wheelie bin with a cross through it” label that signifies WEEE compliant products.

(Image credit: By WEEE.svg: European Unionderivative work: Mateozlatar (talk) – WEEE.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6036939)

As it is on products being sold in Europe, it will commonly be seen along with their CE marking (here’s a photo of the bottom of our mic here in the Sofeast office):

According to the European Union:

The symbol indicates that the product should not be discarded as unsorted waste but must be sent to separate collection facilities for recovery and recycling. The WEEE marking must appear on any electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market.

Do YOU need to comply with the EU WEEE Directive?

Manufacturers, importers, distributors, and sellers of electronic and electrical products in the EU are all affected by the directive. Non-European companies, such as those based in the United States, are also still bound to comply with its requirements and will face stiff penalties such as fines and the products being banned from sale if they don’t, regardless of the company’s origin.

Product categories within the directive’s scope

Unsure if the WEEE Directive’s scope covers your products? You can access a full list of products in the annex of the EU directive, but typically it covers these categories:

• Temperature exchange equipment, such as fridges and air-conditioning units
• Screens, monitors, and equipment containing screens having a surface greater than 100 cm²
• Lamps
• Large equipment (any external dimension more than 50 cm) such as washing machines, copy machines, rooftop solar panels
• Small equipment (external dimension less than 50 cm) such as vacuum cleaners, smoke detectors, clocks and watches
• Small IT and telecommunications equipment (no external dimension more than 50 cm)

Certain products like those used exclusively by the military and in space, for example, are exempt (you can see more exemptions in the EU directive annex).

WEEE Directive Compliance steps

WEEE Directive compliance for your products includes these main steps:

Design the product with recycling/reuse in mind

WEEE’s objective is to reduce electrical/electronic product waste and harmful substances getting into the environment when they are disposed of, so one of the first tasks you should pay attention to is designing the product for sustainability. In this case, you would seek to minimize hazardous substances in the product, construct it in such a way that it can be easily disassembled and sorted for recycling, and, of course, prioritize recyclable materials and components where possible.

Label the product correctly

You’re now familiar with the “crossed-out wheelie bin” symbol, which indicates that this is a WEEE directive-compliant product that should not be disposed of in a landfill with normal waste. This must be affixed (printed) to the product along with your brand name or trademark. If the product is very small and the symbol won’t fit (or it somehow interferes with its functions), it may be added to the packaging or handbook/warranty card instead. Products placed on the market after August 13^th, 2005 should include either a black bar under the symbol or the date that the product was placed on the market.

Undergo WEEE registration

You should register with the WEEE authority in each EU member state that the products are sold in. Registration and reporting to the national register are free, but registration is mandatory because it allows the state to track your products and check that they comply with recycling requirements. You can find the contact details of the national registers at the European WEEE Registers Network.

Collect and recycle products at the end of their lifespans

Your business will need to pay for the collection and treatment of WEEE, such as through customers being able to return them to you or a compliance scheme. An example of this may be the HP Planet Partners – Recycle Supplies recycling scheme, where customers are provided with a pre-paid envelope to return empty printer cartridges to a processing facility in Europe.

Keep records for the authorities

You should create and maintain records of all EEE products sold and submit them annually or face penalties such as fines. The records should contain:

• Units sold and weight in kg or tons of EEE products (per year)
• Types of products per category (mentioned above) and if it is household or industrial equipment
• The volume of WEEE collected, categorized as above
• Waste recovery and/or recycling data, categorized as above
• Which treatment facility was used for recycling/reclamation and information about the treatment outcomes (materials recovered, hazardous substances treated, waste that could not be recovered or recycled…)
• Collection and treatment costs
• Fees incurred to comply with WEEE requirements
• Compliance scheme membership. Examples of these are Repic – WEEE Compliance Scheme in the UK, EARN – European Advanced Recycling Network in Germany, and Ecosystem – WEEE Compliance Scheme in France.

The national WEEE register authorities for the member states you sell into will require a copy of the records annually. However, other bodies and organizations may require access to your records, such as:

• Customs to monitor imported EEE products for compliance and illegal WEEE
• National environmental protection agencies (such as the Environment Agency in the UK or the Umweltbundesamt in Germany) for compliance enforcement purposes
• Compliance schemes (see example above)

Benefits and Drawbacks of the WEEE Directive

Benefits

• Compliance: By complying with the directive’s requirements, businesses dealing in EEE products will avoid fines, legal action, and EU sales bans.
• Reduced environmental impact: If EEE products are recycled and reused, fewer will go to landfill or incineration resulting in less negative environmental impacts like pollution, and a reduction in resources required.
• Positive impact on a brand’s image: Businesses that make tangible efforts to comply with the WEEE directive can be seen by customers as more sustainable and responsible which could be a business advantage.

Drawbacks

• Additional admin and management: Creating, updating, and submitting the records may be a cumbersome task, especially for smaller businesses and those who sell into several EU member states.
• Increased costs: EU WEEE Directive compliance is not free and paying for recovery and recycling, fees for compliance schemes, and adjusting product designs (if needed) can be high for smaller businesses.

WEEE Registration: What is the process?

Here’s a high-level introduction to what the WEEE registration process requires:

1. Identify the relevant WEEE compliance authority for the EU member state/s (or European countries) you’re selling into.
2. Submit your company information and details about your products and how many will be sold in that country.
3. Pay relevant fees. Registration and reporting to the national register are free, however, businesses will probably have to pay recycling and compliance scheme fees which will change depending on how many EEE products are processed and their types.
4. Obtain your unique WEEE registration number and use it in all relevant documentation and reporting.

Conclusion

Complying with the EU WEEE Directive is a must for businesses selling electronic and electrical products on the European market. Not only will businesses be producing more sustainable and environmentally friendly products, but they will also be actively reclaiming, reusing, and recycling them at the end of their lifecycles.

This has introduced what you need to know to comply with the directive and avoid fines, sales bans, and worse.

For more detailed information on the EU WEEE Directive, visit the European Commission’s website’s page on the topic.

Disclaimer

Here at Sofeast, we are not lawyers. What we wrote above is based only on our understanding of the legal requirements. We do not present this information as a basis for you to make decisions, and we do not accept any liability if you do so. Consider consulting a lawyer before making legal decisions.