Latest news on the WEEE directive

Originally due to be released in June 2005, the WEEE directive has been continually postponed. Following the December announcement that the June 2006 deadline would not be met and that the draft regulations would not be published until the spring, it is no surprise that these draft regulations have held out until the Summer. According to the government, the long overdue directive will come into force on July 1, 2007, over 2 years later than its original implementation date. Businesses have been given until October 17 to provide the government with feedback on these draft regulations, including

• A national Distributor Takeback Scheme, with dedicated facilities to which people can take their old kit;
• Authorised Treatment Facilities, to deal with the recycling, and keep producers up to date with how much of their old products have been returned
• Accredited reprocessing/recycling facilities who will provide evidence of reprocessing to producers;
• An end-of-year settlement to ensure producers are able to meet their obligations via an "Exchange system;
• A voluntary approach for producers to show the cost of handling historical WEEE.

See further details