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

these responsibilities by means of designation to the Clearing House of the
producers.
In August 2004, the business associations ZVEI and Bitcom set up the foundation
“Stiftung Elektro-Altgeräte Register- EAR” (Elektro-Altgeräte Register - WEEE register)
based in Fürth/Bavaria. The EAR foundation was set up to fulfil the responsibilities of
the Clearing House of the producers and was made available for designation by the
Federal Environmental Agency. 461
The role of the EAR as a clearing house is:
410
� Registering producers placing EEE on the market in Germany for B2B as well
as B2C equipment;
� Before producers can place EEE on the market in Germany, they have to
provide a guarantee, i.e. insolvency-proof financial guarantee, independently
of whether the producer complies in a group or individually, that covers the
cost of sound disposal of the household appliances that the producer plans to
sell after 13 th August 2005;
� Based on a formula, the Clearing House determines the collection volumes for
the individual producer and calculates an even temporal and regional
distribution of WEEE collection quotas among all producers;
� It also compiles data inter alia on equipment placed on the market, taken
back and recovered equipment, and it submits the data to the Environmental
Agency (Umweltbundesamt);
� The supervision of the transport of WEEE from the collection site to the
treatment facility.
The EAR has no operational functions, like the take-back, dismantling, sorting or
disposal of WEEE.
Once a certain amount of a category of WEEE has been collected, the municipality
informs the clearing house. The clearing house decides to which of the five categories
the appliance belongs, and calculates the respective volume of WEEE (including
historical WEEE). The volume is important for the financing of WEEE waste
management.
Concerning WEEE from private households (B2C) the ElektroG states:
� From 24 th March 2006, producers must finance the waste management of
“historical” WEEE (equipment put on the market before 13 th August 2005)
calculated on the basis of the producer’s market share at the time that the
WEEE management cost arises; and
461 The EAR is the focal point for information concerning the management of WEEE for public
authorities and the private sector and it supports decision-making. The ElektroG provides that the
clearing house be constituted with a council, whose members are producers, retailers, public entities
responsible for waste management, representatives at the Federal level and from the German Länder
(states), and consumer and environment protection associations.
29/09/09