European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive

Directive 2002/96/EC amended by Directive 2003/108/EC on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the WEEE Directive) is one of a number of pieces of European Union (EU) secondary legislation that aims to attribute to producers the financial responsibility throughout the life cycle of their electrical and electronic products. The obligations contained in the WEEE Directive require producers to facilitate the dismantling and recovery for reuse and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), often referred to as “e-waste,” according to their market share by product type. By doing so, the intention of such extended producer responsibility (EPR) instruments is to incentivize shifts in current patterns of production and consumption toward more sustainable, long-term, and collectively beneficial operations.

The WEEE Directive is a result of the European ...