ProducersRetailersConsumers

Legislation

The WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC is an EU Directive founded on the principle of "Producer Responsibility" and its general objectives are:

  1. to prevent waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and to promote the reuse, recycling and recovery of such wastes
  2. to improve the environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of electrical and electronic equipment, e.g. producers, distributors and consumers and in particular those operators directly involved in the treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment.

Scope

WEEE Directive applies across ten categories of Electrical and Electronic Equipment EEE
The following 10 categories have been identified in the WEEE Directive as belonging to EEE:

  • Large household appliances
  • Small household appliances
  • IT and telecommunications equipment
  • Consumer equipment
  • Lighting equipment
  • Electrical and electronic tools
  • Toys, leisure and sports equipment
  • Medical devices
  • Monitoring and control instruments
  • Automatic dispensers

Irish Legislation

The Irish government implemented the WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC in August 2005.

From 13 August 2005, all Producers and Distributors (Retailers) of EEE must comply with the WEEE Regulations 2005.

Producers of EEE must register with the WEEE Register Society and where they are supplying household consumer EEE, can join a compliance scheme such as WEEE Ireland to help meet their collection, recycling and reporting requirements as specified in the Regulations.

For more details on compliance and how to join WEEE Ireland, see the following links:

Enforcement

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is the government department with responsibility for environmental matters. Enforcement of the Regulations is overseen by the Office of Environmental Enforcement at the EPA and by Local Authority Officers. Non compliance with the Regulations can result in prosecution.