COMBATTING WASTE CRIME

Directive 2012/19 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), includes rules favouring the prevention of waste from used vehicles as well as their recovery. Such rules aim at the limitation of the use of hazardous substances in vehicles and their reduction as far as possible from the conception of the vehicle on “so as in particular to prevent their release into the environment, make recycling easier, and avoid the need to dispose of hazardous waste.” The design and production of new vehicles must thus “take into full account and facilitate” the dismantling, reuse and recovery of used vehicles as well as the integration of an increasing quantity of recycled materials in vehicles and other products. Heavy metals, including lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium are ruled out, but for strictly specified uses (Article 4).

The issue of the national or European dimension of such a system has been discussed, the Member States being as always keen on maintaining their prerogatives, not without their usual dose of protectionist intent, and this has led to a definition of the notion of producer for the purposes of this Directive: this is deemed to be a person who manufactures a product, or has such a product designed or manufactured and marketed under his name or trademark, but only if such a person does perform these acts within the territory of a Member State where it is established. In addition, the notion of producer also includes whoever “sells EEEs by means of distance communication directly to private households or to users other than private households in a Member State, and is established in another Member State or in a third country” [Article 3(f)]. Where a producer does sell EEEs in a Member State where it is not “established”, it must appoint an authorised representative who shall be “responsible for fulfilling the obligations of that producer” on the territory of the Member State of destination (Article 17).

The Directive applies to equipment designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1.000 volts for alternating current and 1.500 volts for direct current [Article 3(1)]. Until 2018, such EEEs covered by the Directive are limited to large and small household appliances, IT and telecommunication equipment, consumer equipment and photovoltaic panels, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large scale stationary industrial tools), toys, leisure and sport equipment, medical devices with the exception of all implanted and infected products, monitoring and control instruments and automatic dispensers [Article 2(1)(a) and Annex I]. Since August 2018, all EEEs will in principle fall within its scope, which shall thus be characterised as “open”, with a few exceptions only [Article 2(1)(b)].

The Member States must encourage the design and production of EEEs in such a way as to facilitate reuse, dismantling and recovery. They must take appropriate measures so that producers do not prevent WEEE from being reused by implementing specific design features or manufacturing processes (Article 4). It should be mentioned that the RoHS Directive (for reduction of hazardous substances) requires that EEEs do not contain substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, Polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), with some exceptions and derogations.