International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

outed to charities and schools to date. Rehab Recycle is associated with the
Microsoft MAR programme. Rehab Recycle provide a high quality IT reuse, refurbish
and recycle service to customers and are one of the country's largest employers of
people with disabilities. The programme has also received the commendation of
WEEE Ireland; to date WEEE Ireland has financed over 200 of these refurbished
computers in their 'schools awareness campaign' that is operated by Rehab. 419
Secondly, increased separate collection may lead to less fly-tipping of WEEE, which
would result in improvements in terms of visual disamenity, particularly in areas that
have experienced disproportionate levels of flytipping in the past. In addition,
separate collection of WEEE may have benefits in terms of increased awareness of
waste in general.
19.11 Complementary Policies
To tackle the growth in generation of WEEE, Ireland introduced the Waste
Management (Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and
Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2005, which were amended by the Waste
Management (Restriction of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and
Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2008. The RoHS Regulations requires that new
electrical and electronic equipment being put on the market after 1 July 06 cannot,
other than the permitted trace level, contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent
chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers
(PBDE) in electrical and electronic equipment, where alternatives are available. The
main aim of the RoHS Regulations is to reduce the amount of the six prescribed
substances in the processing and recycling phases in the lifecycle of electrical and
electronic equipment.
In addition the Irish government implemented the Batteries Directive 2006/66/EC in
September 2008. This Directive applies to all types of batteries and accumulators,
regardless of their shape, volume, weight, material composition or use, including
those incorporated into electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and vehicles. Since
26 September 2008, all Producers and Distributors (Retailers) of batteries must
comply with these Battery Regulations. Producers of batteries must register with the
WEEE Register Society and where they are supplying portable or automotive batteries
can join a compliance scheme such as WEEE Ireland to help meet their collection,
recycling and reporting requirements as specified in the Regulations.
19.12 Effect of the Policy on Pricing of Resources / Services
As mentioned in “Implementation Costs”, a visible Environmental Management Cost
(vEMC) to fund the cost of the environmentally sound management of historic WEEE,
has been added to the cost of new EEE products. The vEMC’s are assigned for
recycling activity and are not diverted elsewhere. The system should lead to an
improvement in the efficiency with which resources are use, though it seems likely
419 Microsoft Ireland (2008) Microsoft's PC Re-use Programme Encourages Low-Cost PCs for Schools
and Charities, http://www.microsoft.com/ireland
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International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes