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

Table 20-2 gives the amount of each category of WEEE collected according to country;
the collection performance in the listed EU countries is similar to Norway and
Switzerland for Category 1 WEEE, but Norway and Switzerland appear to perform
better when collecting other categories of WEEE, with only Sweden providing
comparable overall collection amounts. However, as noted in the UNU report, the
current 4 kg target will be easier to reach in those countries that produce more EEE in
the first place, rather than truly reflecting the re-use, recycling and safe disposal of all
WEEE produced. The UNU report concludes that there is a rough correlation between
relative affluence and the amount of WEEE generated, suggesting that in Western
Europe WEEE arisings are in the region of 14-24 kg/head, while New Members are
likely to be 6-12 kg/head.
Table 20-2: Collection Performance (kg/inhabitant) by WEEE category
Country
393
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes
WEEE Category Number
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Japan 2.58 n.d. 0.82 n.d n.d n.d n.d n.d n.d n.d N/A
Totals
Norway 8.15 0.46 2.68 2.01 - - 0.04 0.06 - 0.01 13.41
Switzerland 4.19 1.40 3.52 2.17 0.12 0.04 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 11.44
Austria 2.00 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.1 Inc2 Inc2 Inc2 Inc2 Inc2 2.77
Belgium 2.99 1.12 1.16 1.64 0.20 0.14 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 7.26
Czech R 0.14 0.00 0.12 0.05 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.33
Estonia 0.48 0.00 0.04 0.10 n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. 0.63
Finland 4.75 0.28 1.44 1.30 0.27 0.03 0.00 0.02 0.01 0.00 8.10
Hungary 0.91 0.04 0.09 0.22 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.27
Ireland 6.68 0.28 0.43 0.67 0.09 0.07 n.d. n.d. 0.00 n.d. 8.22
Netherlands 2.59 0.53 n.d. 1.18 0.03 0.06 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.02 4.44
Slovakia 0.35 0.04 0.05 0.20 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.66
Sweden 5.01 1.41 2.54 2.36 0.74 0.11 0.02 0.02 n.d. n.d. 12.20
UK 7.17 0.54 0.59 1.10 0.04 0.35 0.16 0.00 0.00 0.00 9.95
EU average 3.11 0.42 0.65 0.88 0.14 0.08 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.00 5.31
n.d. no data, Inc2 = included in Category 2 figure
Source: United Nations University (2007) 2008 Review of Directive 2002/96 on Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Final Report produced for the European Commission.
In addition, the 4 kg per household figure does not discriminate in favour of those
products that have the highest economic or environmental relevance; for example,
the collection of refrigerators containing CFCs is more important for meeting
environmental objectives so the targets should be set to reflect this importance. The
rate of CFC extraction from old appliances and disposal without emission to air was
reported in Recycle.co.uk as only 42 % in Germany compared to 91 % in Austria,