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ELECTRO-SCRAP DIRECTIVE: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT TOOK BIG STEP FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

European Environmental Bureau Press Release

EUROPE, 10 April 2002 -- The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomed the vote of the European Parliament on two directives on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). The Parliament has considerably improved the Council Common Position, especially with respect to individual producer responsibility. The Parliament unanimously supported (525 votes to 2) the individual financing of future WEEE. "This is an important victory in environmental legislation; making companies responsible individually for the treatment of their products once they are no longer used is an essential incentive for minimising environmental impacts by improving the environmental characteristics of these products", said EEB's Secretary General John Hontelez.

The EEB welcomes also other improvements, especially:

* Member States are required to separately collect ALL WEEE and cannot allow disposal of it together with other municipal waste. They also have to arrange sufficient enforcement capacities;

* A legally binding collection target for Member States of 6kg per inhabitant per year is the minimum by December 2005 at the latest.

On the other hand, the EEB regrets that the Parliament did not follow its Environment Committee in insisting on strong recycling targets. This failure opens the door for some 15-20 % of some equipment such as TVs, computers and phones to be incinerated. The EP has also failed to include all the spare parts and consumables, in particular, light bulbs.

On the phase-out of hazardous substances in future electronic equipment, the EP adopted important amendments promoting substitution through design changes (providing momentum for the complete re-designing of products to get round hazardous substances that current technology requires). However, although bringing forward the date of phase out to 2006, the Parliament adopted a soft option, avoiding the naming of specific substances that should be considered for extending the phase out list. The EEB regretted as well the refusal of the Parliament to delete potential derogations for Octa and Deca brominated flame retardants.

For more information, contact: Melissa Shinn, EEB, mobile: +32 494 418376; tel: +32 2 289 13 00; fax +32 2 289 10 99; email: ecoproducts@eeb.org Or Roberto Ferrigno + 32 2 289 10 90 Also see the EEB website at www.eeb.org

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