EAC re-launches inquiry into e-waste and the circular economy
13th March 2020 | Recycling
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has re-launched its inquiry into waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and the circular economy. The new Electronic Waste and the Circular Economy inquiry comes after the committee’s previous electronic waste (e-waste) inquiry, which commenced in June 2019, was suspended due to the dissolution of Parliament ahead of December’s general election.
E-waste is growing faster than any other waste stream in the world, with around 50 million metric tonnes generated globally in 2018, most of which ends up in landfill or incineration. Although exporting e-wate to developing countries is banned, this practice continues to take place – 1.3 tonnes of undocumented e-waste is estimated to be exported from the EU every year to countries in Africa and Asia.
EAC
In the UK, e-waste is managed under the EU’s WEEE Directive and the UK WEEE Regulations 2013, which require producers to take financial responsibility for the end-of-life of their products. While retailers have been able to pay a fee to cover their recycling obligations under the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS), the government announced in January that the fifth phase of the DTS will require larger retailers to provide in-store take-back facilities from January 2021 rather than covering the recycling costs.
Building on evidence from the previous inquiry – which had received 51 submissions of written evidence and planned a programme of oral evidence hearings – the EAC is welcoming further submissions on the environmental impacts of WEEE management, covering topics such as how the UK Government can support the transition towards a circular economy for electrical goods, how secondary markets for electronic goods can be improved and how the government can prevent the illegal export of e-waste to developing countries.
The inquiry will also examine whether the UK’s WEEE collection targets are achievable, after the Environment Agency last week announced that the UK has fallen short of its WEEE targets for the third consecutive year.
More information available on the website below
https://resource.co/article/eac-re-launches-inquiry-e-waste-and-circular-economy