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Legislation



Electrical and electronic equipment has the authorities' attention, primarily because of the rising amounts of waste and the connected disposal problems.

This is the reason why since the beginning of the nineties there has been an ongoing work on legislation in this field, starting in Germany, Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, as well as on the EU-scale.

The regulations are primarily concerned with:

The regulations also introduces a producer responsibility for the disposal, and demands information from the producer to the recycler about e.g. the content of environmentally hazardous parts and possibilities for recycling.


3 EU-directives within this field are being prepared:

Directive

Main Content

Status
Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

(WEEE directive eng)

Amendment_eng

(WEEE directive dk)

Ændring_dk
  • Specifies collection requirements and targets in the member states
  • Specifies recycling targets
  • Introduces producer responsibility for the disposal costs
  • EE-equipment shall be marked, telling the consumer not to dispose it with normal waste stream
  • Producer must provide information to recyclers
  • Final Directive to be implemeted in national legislation by August 2004.
Directive on the Restriction o f the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment

(RoHS directive eng)

(RoHS directive dk)
  • Introduces ban on the use of Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, hexavalent Chromium.
  • Introduces ban on certain brominated flame retardants (PBB & PBDE).
  • Final Directive to be implemeted in national legislation by August 2004.

Proposal for a framework Directive for setting eco-design requirements for energy-using products

(EuP directive)
  • The proposal does not introduce directly binding requirements for specific products, but does define conditions and criteria for setting, through subsequent implementing measures, requirements regarding environmentally relevant product characteristics (such as energy consumption) and allows them to be improved quickly and efficiently.
  • After adoption of the Directive by the Council and the European Parliament, the Commission, assisted by a Committee, will be able to enact implementing measures on specific products and environmental aspects (such as energy consumption, waste generation, water consumption, extension of lifetime) after impact assessment and broad consultation of interested parties.


The present Danish legislation about WEEE (which will be severly rewritten due to the implementation of the WEEE directive) can be seen here: Bekendtgørelse om håndtering af affald af elektriske og elektroniske produkter (BEK nr 1067 af 22/12/1998)

Search all infromation about Danish legislation from http://www.retsinfo.dk.

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