Under the WEEE regulations, when you buy electrical and electronic goods in the UK, your retailer must either provide a free take-back service or tell you where your nearest Designated Collection Facility is.

• The cost of this service is included in the price of the goods, so use it – you’ve already paid for it!

The WEEE Directive

What is WEEE?

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is the name given to the surplus, obsolete, broken, or discarded electrical or electronic devices, including mobile phones, and their constituent parts. WEEE is sometimes also referred to as e-waste or e-scrap.

As sales of electronic and electrical devices increase in developing countries, concern for the safe disposal of these goods has grown, particularly as they contain substances that can be highly toxic if allowed to escape into the environment.

What is the WEEE Directive?

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive 2002/96/EC is a European directive that places responsibility for the disposal of electrical and electronic equipment on the manufacturers of the goods. The directive also set targets for the collection, recycling and recovery of all types of electrical and electronic devices.

Has the Directive become UK law?

The Directive is implemented in the UK through The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006, which came into force in 2007. Some aspects of the regulations apply only in England and Wales, and will be supplemented by similar but separate legislation to be introduced in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

How does the Directive affect consumers?

The WEEE Directive does not require by law that consumers dispose of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in a certain way.

However, the UK government strongly advises consumers to dispose of e-waste in an environmentally and socially responsible way, by separating it from ordinary household waste and arranging for it to be re-used or safely recycled.

Local authorities are required by the Directive to provide free of charge collection facilities for WEEE, and many retailers now offer a free in-store take-back service.

How does the Directive affect retailers?

The WEEE Directive makes a distinction between electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) that is sold to businesses and that which is sold to domestic users.

Regarding the EEE that has been sold to domestic users, the Directive requires retailers:

• To provide consumers information about the environmental effects of WEEE and about the need for separate collection of household WEEE.
• To facilitate the free of charge ‘take-back’ of household WEEE, either by joining the Distributor Take-back Scheme or collecting WEEE in-store or through local collection points.
• To keep records of the information they provide and the household WEEE they receive.

Regarding the EEE that has been sold to businesses, the Directive makes no formal requirements of retailers. Businesses wishing to dispose of their EEE will need to use the services of a registered waste carrier to dispose of their e-waste safely and in compliance with the Directive.

How does the Directive affect manufacturers and producers?

Under the WEEE Directive, manufacturers and producers are defined as those companies who either make electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in the UK or import it into the UK.

As the original source of the EEE that ends up as WEEE or ‘e-waste’, manufacturers and producers are given the greatest responsibility under the Directive, which holds them responsible for the collection and recovery or recycling of the e-waste that their goods become.

The Directive requires the manufacturers and producers of electrical and electronic goods to undertake the following:

• To mark all products covered by the Directive with the crossed-out wheelie bin symbol (shown below), indicating that the product is subject to separate collection at end-of-life, under the WEEE directive.
• To provide a fully functioning return system whereby those wishing to return end-of-life electronic and electrical goods can do so. 
•  To join a ‘WEEE Compliance Scheme’, which ensures that all the waste they put into the UK economy is properly accounted for, right up to the end of its life. These schemes enable companies to comply with the WEEE Directive by collecting and recycling e-waste on their behalf, and reporting back to the Environment Agency.