WEEE Directive

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) aims to minimise the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment during their life times and when they become waste by promoting separate collection. It applies to a huge spectrum of products. It encourages and sets criteria for the collection, disposal, treatment, recycling and recovery of all redundant electrical and electronic equipment.

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) plays an ever-increasing role in our daily lives. We have now come to rely on our electrical appliances. These offer us many benefits but also some costs to the environment as we are throwing away more and more of this waste – in the UK the amount of electrical and electronic waste increases each year by an estimated 80,000 tonnes.

It’s a European-wide problem. Not enough Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is being recycled. In response, the WEEE Directive was agreed in 2003, along with the related Directive on Restrictions of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS). This seeks to improve the way we manage the WEEE we produce and helps to protect both human health and the environment. It sets targets for collecting WEEE, new standards for the treatment of WEEE and strict recycling and recovery targets to help minimise its disposal.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste Management Licensing) (England and Wales) Regulations 2006 came into force on 5 January 2007. These Regulations cover England and Wales and deal with the site licensing and WEEE treatment requirements of the WEEE Directive.

If you use electrical and electronic equipment you must store, collect, treat, recycle and dispose of WEEE separately from your other waste.

You must also obtain and keep proof that your WEEE was given to a waste management company, and was treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound way.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2006 place responsibilities on users, producers and distributors of electrical and electronic equipment.

When the 'Crossed out Wheelie Bin Symbol' is marked on a product or packaging, it means that the product should not be disposed of with your general household waste. Only discard electrical/electronic items in separate collection schemes, which cater for the recovery and recycling of materials contained within. Your co-operation is vital to ensure the success of these schemes and for the protection of the environment.