12 January, 2015

What is WEEE?

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) is a government directive, it came in to force in 2002. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive and the RoHS Directive became European Law in February 2003. The WEEE Directive set collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types of electrical goods, while the RoHS Directive set restrictions upon European manufacturers as to the material content of new electronic equipment placed on the market.

The directive places WEEE into a few categories, the first being historic and non-historic. Historic WEEE is equipment placed on the market prior to 2005 which places the responsibility on the owner of the equipment to arrange for its recycling, and non-historic WEEE is when the responsibility of the producer/distributor to make provisions for its collection and recycling.