HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE WEEE AND ROHS DIRECTIVES, THE INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Ab Stevels, Phillips, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT : The European Directive on Waste of Electronic and Electrical Equipment has now been approved by the European Parliament and by the Council of Member States and is now in the process of transportation into national laws. Parallel to this, terms and conditions have to be formulated on basis of which practical implementation of the legal texts should take place. On European level a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) consisting of representatives of Member States is operating towards this end. In Industry, working groups of Orgalime (representing the metal and electro industry), EICTA (specifically representing the electronics industry (consumer electronics, IT and telecom)) and CECED (household appliances) are active towards this end. In this paper the most pressing issues as regards WEEE implementation will be highlighted and solutions how to tackle these will be proposed. The basis for proposing such solutions is that the environmental intent of the WEEE should be primarily served while keeping overall costs for society as low as possible. Another basic idea is that solutions which might deviate from the current juridical framework are allowed if (better) ecological and economic performance warrant these. The wide product scope of WEEE makes that a variety of ways in which systems are organized and of financing models should be allowed. It will be demonstrated that for consumer electronics, household appliance products and computer monitors, collective systems with a "visible fee" financing are most appropriate both for so-called "historical" and so-called future waste (however, with individual responsibility for the system members to control free riders, orphans) .On the other hand for several IT and telecom products individual systems with internalized costs are more appropriate. In the field of collection of discarded products it will be demonstrated that keeping the responsibility in the public domain will be most beneficial both from an environmental and an economical point of view. Practice shows that realizing the current collection target of 4 kg / inhabitant will be in most Member States not a problem to realize - however, if this target is to be increased to for instance 6 kg, additional rules for specific product categories will have to be formulated. An example how this can be done will be given. The recycling quotes as given in WEEE are poorly defined as regards their precise meaning. Examples will be given how this will lead to great confusion and can introduce market distortion. In the first instance it is proposed to use uniformly through Europe the so-called not-to-landfill / incineration definition (for simplicity reasons) .In the second instance it is proposed to change from weight based recycling quotes to environmentally weighted recycling quotes. These reflect much better the environmental intent of WEEE and are capable to describe all environmental effects in take-back and recycling (not only the gains by material reuse but also the environmental loads associated with collection, treatment and upgrading of secondary streams). The environmentally weighted recycling quotes are also capable to make meaningful conclusions about different levels of reapplication of secondary materials and to give meaningful input to eco-efficiency (environmental gain / cost ratio's). Several examples about such eco-efficiency calculations with a variety of outcomes for the different product items will be presented. A hot item in WEEE is also annex II, containing the treatment rules. These rules have been introduced with the intent to separate parts and components that are supposed to be potentially toxic. This is useful at the moment such parts and components get after separation a treatment which is different from the ones they would get when staying within the not separated streams. It this is not the case for a couple of important parts (for instance Printed Wiring Boards still will go to a copper smelter jointly with other copper containing components). Separate disassembly of PWBs therefore brings no environmental gains but is just adding cost. Examples will be given how eco-efficiency calculations can contribute to solve the question where parts / components used to be separately disassembled and where not. The present climate of uncertainty about WEEE makes that, in the opinion of the author, WEEE can be best implemented in a "growth model" based on the current technology and outlet channel structures in the various Member States rather than starting directly with strict enforcement of the requirements. The first years should be used for data collection and to make reviews of systems operating in practice. This will allow to make a gap analysis with the ambitions of WEEE . In turn this should lead to a general improvement program and/or the formulation of alternative rules for these cases where it is foreseeable that more can be delivered than originally intended or reversely that there is a consistent shortfall between practice and the original requirements. If time is used well and constructively ,the current mainly weight based requirements can be changed to real environmental criteria .Simultaneously, the disassembly oriented rules of the current WEEE can be widened allowing a wide range of technologies to be applied. In such a case it is the firm opinion of the author that WEEE will become a success already shortly after the implementation deadline in 2006. Also as regards the implementation of RoHS quite some issues will have to be settled for a successful implementation. These issues are chiefly in three areas: - setting meaningful threshold concentrations for the substances to be restricted. - formulating practical boundaries for the "systems" (parts,components,subassemblies) to which the threshold rules will apply. - agreeing on chemical analysis methods and procedures which are to be used for (self)declaration and monitoring of compliance. In the presentation proposals will be made how these issues can be successfully tackled.