Brussels, 04/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - It is out of the question for the EU not to make a determined effort to address the problem of the mountain of waste from used electrical and electronic equipment. This stance was adopted by an overwhelming majority of the Parliament's environment committee (52 votes for, 1 against and 5 abstentions) on Tuesday 4 October at second reading on the proposal for making changes to the current waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive. It is therefore far more ambitious than the Council (see EUROPE 10337). Following their rapporteur, Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP, Germany), MEPs once more made demands for collection objectives that the Council had watered down and eliminated any potential loopholes in the text tabled.
Thus, MEPs called for the annual collection target per member state to be at least 85% of waste generated by 2016, adding that waste collected should receive adequate treatment. Depending on the kind of waste, the collection target for e-waste should be 70-85%, the recycling target 50-75% and the target for re-use 5%.
Consumers should be authorised to hand in very small appliances (such as light bulbs and portable phones) to retailers free of charge. Retailers would be under an obligation to take them back - except for micro-retailers - whether or not the consumer has bought a new electrical/electronic good at that store. MEPs believe this solution would have the advantage of preventing waste containing dangerous or precious substances to be thrown away with the other waste, and provide an alternative to the installations that already accept household e-waste.
Finally, to prevent the illegal export of e-waste to Asia or Africa, with the harmful consequences that this has on the environment and on the health of those working with such waste, the parliamentary committee calls for exporters to guarantee that their despatches to third countries not belonging to the OECD only contain reusable products but no waste. (AN/transl.jl)