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PRESS STATEMENT EEB warns of major loophole in Parliament’s Environment Committee vote on Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment Brussels (March 22, 2002) –The European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the largest federation of environmental citizens organisations in Europe, called the vote in the Environmental Committee of the European Parliament on Waste from Electric and Electronic Equipment a mixed result. On the one hand, the EEB welcomes that in the principle the Committee has chosen for a system for the processing of end-of-life equipment based on individual producer responsibility (IPR). The EEB believes that the introduction of IPR is the right way to implement internalisation of the costs of environmental impacts of products in their prices to consumers and is coherent with the principles of Integrated Product Policy. However the EEB strongly regrets that a majority in the Environment Committee allowed an important loophole in the system by already assuming that "appropriate guarantees" for the dismantling and treatment of such equipment in case of unknown or bankrupt producers will not work well. Consequently, choosing to maintain a collective financing responsibility option for the sector. This may lead to a massive undermining of the individual producer responsibility principle in practice. John Hontelez, Secretary of the EEB, said: "For individual product responsibility to work it is essential that this directive provides a watertight framework. Only in this way will it really make the market work for environmentally motivated product innovation. We will call upon the Parliament in its plenary vote in April to remove this damaging loophole." On other issues the EEB is pleased that there was reintroduction of binding collection targets of 6KG /inhabitant/year. It also appreciated the clear intention to keep WEEE out of the unsorted municipal waste and the strict limitations on export from electric and electronic waste to non-EU countries, only to be allowed if it is for re-use. While the EEB is equally pleased with the Committee's decision to increase the list of substances for selective treatment (i.e. more effective removal from the recycling material chain) in the WEEE proposal, it does miss effective rulings for specific considerations of other substances in the sister directive on ROHS. Positive in the ROHS proposal, according to the EEB, is the support for the earlier phase-out, from January 2006, of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and PBBs and PBDEs, as is the possibility to extend the scope of restrictions to other hazardous substances present in EEE in the future. This includes the consideration of elimination of the use of substances through (technological) design changes and not just simple substance exchange. For more information, contact:
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