How do businesses manage WEEE-related compliance obligations?

WEEE comply with what? PART 2

In Europe, companies selling electrical and/or electronic products and devices must take into consideration two to three end-of-life (waste) regulations when they sell goods:

• The battery directive
• The packaging directive
• The WEEE directive

Each directive sets up a dedicated waste stream (WEEE, battery and packaging) with specific responsibilities in terms of:

• Legally constituted entities
• Registration obligations
• Sales and declarations obligations
• Obligations with regard to quantities and recycling
• Financing of system or operations
• Reporting obligations

How to identify if you have obligations?

Goods that fall into the scope of the WEEE directive (see article entitled “What is WEEE?”) might also contain batteries and are usually packaged.

In order to comply with legal requirements, a company placing appliances and related batteries and packaging on one or several EU markets (for the first time) must ensure compliance in each country where these obligations are mandatory.

To fulfil and manage obligations, companies need to identify:

• Whether the legal requirements apply to their activities
• Their precise obligations
• Different ways to comply, i.e. individually or via a compliance/take back systems
• Potential service providers: (PRO) Producer Responsibility Organization (i.e, Producer Compliance Schemes, Take back schemes)

This is usually realized via a legal assessment of supply chain, distribution network and stakeholders, invoicing mechanism.

Therefore, in each country, companies with producer responsibility are required to:

• Register with the appropriate authorities
• Declare quantities and weights placed on the market (future WEEE appliances, batteries, packaging)
• Manage information and communication to end-users (marking)
• Organize takeback and recycling of old appliances, batteries and packaging waste
• Finance take back and recycling
• Report figures for takeback and recycling to the authorities.

However, for a single product, it may so happen that the party with producer responsibility for the WEEE and the batteries is a different one to that responsible for the packaging. This usually depends on the different entities involved with invoicing, shipping and bearing responsibility for the shipment.

Romain Letenneur