EU WEEE Directive 2012/19/EU

Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also referred to as the weee directive.

What is the WEEE Directive?

The WEEE Directive is not officially a ce marking directive. However, it applies to products that are required to comply with CE requirements, which is why we include it on our website.

Directive 2012/19/EU was adopted on 4 July 2012 and entered into force 20 days later, on 13 August 2012. Member States were required to adopt and publish national laws, regulations and administrative provisions to transpose the Directive into national law by 14 February 2014.

The objectives of the WEEE Directive are, in particular, to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment, protect human health, and utilise natural resources prudently and rationally.

Which products are covered by the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)?

This Directive applies to the following electrical and electronic equipment (EEE):

(a) During the transitional period from 13 August 2012 to 14 August 2018, EEE falling within the categories set out in Annex I pursuant to paragraph 3:

1. Large household appliances

2. Small household appliances

3. IT and telecommunications equipment

• Consumer equipment and photovoltaic panels

• Lighting equipment

• Electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools)

• Toys

1. Leisure and sports equipment

2. Medical devices (excluding all implanted and infected products)

3. Monitoring and control instruments

4. Automatic dispensers

Which products are not covered by the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)?

The WEEE Directive shall not apply to any of the following EEE:

(a) Equipment necessary for the protection of the essential interests of national security, including weapons, munitions and war material intended for specifically military purposes;

(b) Equipment designed and installed exclusively as part of another type of equipment which is excluded from the scope of this Directive or does not fall within it;

(c) Incandescent light bulbs.

How to comply with the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)?

The Directive imposes responsibility for the treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment on producers or distributors of such equipment. It requires these companies to establish infrastructure for the collection of WEEE, so that "users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility of returning WEEE at least free of charge".

The Directive has led to the establishment of national "producer compliance schemes", to which manufacturers and distributors pay annual fees for the collection and recycling of waste electrical and electronic products from household waste recovery centres.