The EU’s WEEE legislation, based on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle, has enabled the creation of the world’s most extensive, comprehensive and innovative ecosystem of ‘actors’, practices, services and technologies. That ecosystem enables impactful awareness campaigns, provides for a dense network of accessible collection points as well as recycling infrastructure, improves market intelligence (WEEE flows) and fosters responsible management of the treatment, depollution and recycling of raw materials in WEEE. 55% of WEEE that arises in Europe every year is reported as properly collected and recycled; the global average is 17.4%. In that respect, the Directive is a major success story.

The WEEE Forum has conducted a Strengths & Weaknesses analysis.

Next week, on 19 October, The WEEE Forum will participate in a workshop organised by the European Commission to evaluate WEEE legislation.