Environment and health: waste electrical and electronic equipment WEEE

By adopting the report by Mr Karl-Heinz FLORENZ (EPP-ED, D), the European Parliament approved the common position along with the amendments proposed by the committee responsible (please refer to the summary dated 21/03/02). In particular, the Parliament passed a set of amendments which repeat its first-reading demand for an average compulsory collection target of 6 kg of electro-scrap per inhabitant, per year, from private households, to be achieved by 31 December 2005. Moreover, Parliament want Member States to prove that the collection target has been reached and also voted to back the ban with inspection and monitoring facilities but rejected the idea of introducing penalties for consumers who fail to sort out their electro-scrap. Parliament also repeated its first-reading demand that individual producer be made to bare the costs of managing the waste from their products, though with a derogation allowing the Member States to use collective financing schemes on condition that they can prove that individual ones would be disproportionately costly. It voted to allow Member States that have already introduced other financing arrangements to retain them, but for no longer than 10 years. MEPs raised the targets for recovery of large household appliances such as fridges and washing machines to 90% (from the Council's 80%) and included automatic dispensers in this. They left the Council's re-use and recycling target for large household appliances at 75%. They raised the recovery target for items such as PCs, phones, radios and hi-fi equipment to 85% (from the Council's 75%) and left the Council's re-use an recycling target for those items at 65%. They want the deadline for these targets brought forward to 31 December 2005 (from the Council's 46 months after the directive becomes law). Lastly, Parliament also wants ozone-depleting gases to be removed from all equipment containing them, not just refrigerators and freezers. Other amendments tighten up the provisions on information for users about the new rules and require products to be marked to show that they must not be binned.�