Four trade bodies have come together to call for new action to capture WEEE that is going unreported.
CECED, Digital Europe, EERA and Lighting Europe represent electrical goods manufacturers, IT and digital technology providers, recycling companies and lighting manufacturers.
As part of the upcoming recast of the WEEE directive, the trade bodies want to see mandatory reporting obligations for all permitted treatment operators and proper enforcement by EU Member States of these requirements.
They say that currently in most Member States, the collection systems set up by producers results in one third of material sold being recovered.
However, it notes that recent research has shown a further third of material is collected and recycled for profit outside of the producer schemes.
As a result, it wants to see more done to monitor the other third of material.
In a report to put their views ahead of the WEEE Directive re-cast, the trade bodies state: “Considering two thirds of WEEE is being treated by recyclers already, it is logical that implementing measures under WEEE 2 should include mandatory reporting obligations for all permitted treatment operators and proper enforcement by Member States of these requirements.
“The position of the undersigned industries is that all permitted WEEE treatment operators must report on all WEEE received, originating from business-to-business users as well as private households, through take back systems, municipalities or other parties, all being counted towards the achievement of the minimum collection rate.
“For protection of the treatment operators’ interests, the reporting should happen in a secure environment. Therefore, it is proposed that treatment operators that comply with the quality standards, report data to an independent register, which may be financed by the producers. This independent register could also register the data from producers on volumes that have been put on the market.”
The four trade associations would also like to see proper treatment under uniform harmonised standards, as well as better enforcement of Waste Shipment Regulations.
