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

equipment. Furthermore producers do not have to pay a financial guarantee for the
B2B equipment at the EAR (see Section 21.3).
Collection Collection of of of WEEE WEEE WEEE from from from private private private households households households (B2C)
(B2C)
Since 24 th March 2006, the disposer (consumer) of WEEE has been obliged to
discard their WEEE in a system which is separated from the residual waste stream. 459
Public waste management authorities remain responsible for the collection of WEEE
from private households. The procedure for collection is widely at the discretion of the
local authorities, though they must ensure that private households can return WEEE
free of charge (bring-back system). The number of collection points to be set up and
the combination of bring sites and kerbside collections is based on population
density, other local conditions and the waste management objective of the greatest
possible level of collection. Smaller municipalities may set up a joint collection point.
A dealer that has taken over equipment (e. g. a washing machine) from a private
household may also return this equipment free of charge to the collection point of the
respective local authority. The local authorities may re-finance the costs for collection
via waste charges.
Local authorities are required to hold the WEEE available for collection by producers,
separated into five groups (containers). Classification into the five groups is decided
on the basis of technical disposal considerations. The five categories are:
407
� large household appliances and automatic dispensers (Category 1);
� refrigerating appliances (Category 2);
� IT and telecommunications equipment and consumer equipment (Category 3);
� gas discharge lights (Category 4); and
� small household appliances, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic
tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment, medical, monitoring and control
instruments (Category 5).
Local authorities can also arrange for the disposal of WEEE themselves or can
commission a third party to do so: By providing three months notice to the Clearing
House (see Section 21.3), the local authorities may choose not to make all the WEEE
in a specific group available for collection for a period of at least one year. In this case
they must also ensure that treatment and recovery requirements are met.
The main responsibility for the management of WEEE according to the EletkroG rests
with the producers. ‘Responsibility’ covers the following issues:
� Producers must take back WEEE collected from private households by public
waste management authorities;
459 Users of non-household WEEE - be it historical or WEEE of products sold after 13 th August 2005 -
may arrange solutions for keeping waste out of disposal with producers.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes