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

demand that the receiving facilities in third countries were shown to be operating to
environmental standards broadly equivalent to those applied within the EU.
20.6 Implementation Costs
The financial model for WEEE producer responsibility will provide a key incentive for
the degree to which producers will change the design of their products to try and
minimise waste and facilitate easier recovery. As detailed in Table 20-2, the financial
options available to EU producers vary according to MS; for household WEEE, some
producers finance their responsibility individually via their own products being placed
on the market (new WEEE), with historical WEEE obligations allocated via current
market shares. In these circumstances, the producer is more likely to design their
product with waste minimisation in mind, as they are directly responsible for their own
WEEE. Some producers have the opportunity to take part in collective producer
responsibility organisations (PROs) such as El Kretsen, which then organise the
collection, treatment and disposal on the producer’s behalf. For non-household
WEEE, the producer is financially responsible for any B2B WEEE placed on the market
after 13 th August 2005. The end-user is financially responsible for financing all
historical B2B WEEE in countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands,
whereas the producer is also financially responsible for historical WEEE in the
remaining EU countries, so long as the customer is replacing old historical WEEE for
new.
It should be noted that, unlike the EU system, consumers in Japan are notified of any
recycling fees when they purchase EEE products, but are not required to pay the
recycling fee until the point of disposal (typically when returning the WEEE to
retailers). 449 This recycling fee only covers the cost of collection and pre-treatment,
with any remaining costs met by the producer.
Financial Financial Financial guarantees
guarantees
Financial guarantees are required within WEEE policies (particularly for household
WEEE), because it cannot be assumed that all producers that are in the market today
will remain active in the market by the time their products are collected as WEEE
(because some products have life-times of considerable length). Most MSs see
membership in collective schemes as sufficient guarantee for those meeting their
obligations via this channel i.e. producers will be responsible for other producers’
products in the event that one member exits the market. For those producers wishing
to comply individually, a blocked bank account or recycling insurance may also be
used to satisfy the guarantee requirement. As discussed previously in Section 20.2.1,
mechanisms such as recycling insurance vary from country to country, with Germany
calculating premiums according to amounts of WEEE, compared to Sweden where
premiums account for the ease of recycling the product at the end of its life.
449 H. Aizawa, H. Yoshida and S-I. Sakai (2008) Current results and future perspectives for Japanese
recycling of home electrical appliances, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 52, 1399-1410.
395
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes