The European Producer Responsibility Directives

WEEE, battery and packaging

Do you sell electrical appliances in Europe? Then there are 3 Directives you must comply with:

WEEE directive: the e-waste directive
battery directive: the battery directive
packaging directive: the directive for the packaging material in which you transport your products

All 3 of these Directives fall under your producer responsibility. This means that you as a producer or importer remain responsible for your product even after you have sold it and once it becomes waste after use by the customer. For this, you pay other companies to arrange the collection and recycling of e-waste, batteries and packaging material.

WEEE directive: for e-waste recycling

You must register and report which volumes you sell on the market per country.
Most countries have a collective producer scheme, which collects and recycles e-waste on behalf of producers. You pay them to ensure proper collection and recycling.
WEEE registration sometimes runs through the government and sometimes through the collective producer scheme.
In some countries, you also have to arrange a security deposit.
You are obliged to make a manual, which explains how your product can be repaired.

Want to know more? Read the WEEE directive 2012/19/EU

Battery directive: for battery recycling

This concerns both built-in batteries and batteries included separately. Even if the battery is only used as a backup (e.g. a button cell on a printed circuit board).
You must register and report which volumes you sell on the market per country.
Most countries have a collective producer scheme, which collects and recycles batteries on behalf of producers. Sometimes this is the same scheme as for e-waste, sometimes it is a standalone scheme. You pay them to ensure proper collection and recycling.

Want to know more? Read the Batteries directive 2006/66/EC

Packaging directive: for recycling all packaging materials

The Directive distinguishes between the different packaging materials: cardboard, glass, wood and metals. You pay a different amount to the producer system for each type of material or plastic, such as PP, PS or EPS.
You must register and report which volumes you put onto the market per country.
The reporting on sold volumes must be based on weight per type of packaging material.

Want to know more? Read the Packaging directive 94/62/EC

Our consultants are happy to help you

Arranging your registration and reporting properly can be complex. The more so since regulations differ from country to country. We are happy to help you to make things as easy as possible for you. You can do this by instructing us to arrange your registrations per country. We can also take care of the reporting for you. This way, you can rest assured that you are compliant and that you meet your producer responsibility.

Would you like to know more about our registration service?

Would you like to know more about our reporting service?

Do you have a question about consultanty?

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