WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)
Number: 2012/19/EU
Official Title:
Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). It is also known as the WEEE Directive.
Description:
Officially, the WEEE Directive is not a CE marking Directive. However, it applies to products that need to comply with CE requirements and for that reason we include it on our site.
Directive 2012/19/EU was published on the 4th of July 2012. It came into force 20 days later on 13th August 2012. The Member States have until 14th of February 2014 to adopt and publish the national laws and regulations transposing the provisions of the new Directive into national law.
The objectives of the WEE directive are, in particular, to preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment, to protect human health and to utilize natural resources prudently and rationally.
Which Products Are Covered By The WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)?
This Directive shall apply to electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) as follows:
(a) from 13 August 2012 to 14 August 2018 (transitional period), subject to paragraph 3, to EEE falling within the categories set out in Annex I:
large household appliances,
small household appliances,
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,
leisure and sports equipment,
medical devices (with the exception of all implanted and infected products),
monitoring and control instruments,
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 that is necessary for the protection of the essential interests of the security of Member States, including arms, munitions and war material intended for specifically military purposes;
b) equipment that is specifically designed and installed as part of another type of equipment that is excluded from or does not fall within the scope of this Directive,
(c) filament bulbs.
How to Comply with the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU):
The directive imposes the responsibility for the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment on the manufacturers or distributors of such equipment. It requires that those companies establish an infrastructure for collecting WEEE, in such a way that “Users of electrical and electronic equipment from private households should have the possibility of returning WEEE at least free of charge”. The directive saw the formation of national “producer compliance schemes”, into which manufacturers and distributors paid an annual fee for the collection and recycling of associated waste electronics from household waste recycling centers.
Links & Downloads
- Text of the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)
- List of European harmonized standards that pertain to the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU)
The Latest Related Blog Posts About the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU):
- Machinery Directive – 2006/42/EC
- Low Voltage Directive – 2014/35/EU
- EMC Directive – 2014/30/EU
- Medical Devices Directive – 93/42/EEC
- Personal Protective Equipment Directive – 89/686/EEC
- Construction Products Regulation – Regulation (EU) No 305/2011
- Pressure Equipment Directive – 97/23/EC
- REACH – Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006
- Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive – 2012/19/EU
- ATEX Directive – 2014/34/EU
- Toy Directive – 2009/48/EC
- R&TTE Directive – 1999/5/EC
- Recreational Craft Directive – 94/25/EC
- Active Implantable Medical Devices Directive – 90/385/EEC
- Explosive for Civil Use Directive – 93/15/EEC
- Noise Emission in the Environment Directive – 2000/14/EC
- Gas Appliances Directive – 2009/142/EC
- Lifts Directive – 1995/16/EC
- Pyrotechnic Directive – 2007/23/EC
- Measuring Instruments Directive – 2004/22/EC
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