European Union’s Waste Electrical & Electronics Equipment (WEEE) directive requires manufacturers of electrical equipment to pick up the bill for their collection and recycling. Member States are to encourage the design and production of electrical and electronic equipment which take into account and facilitate dismantling and recovery, in particular the reuse and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment. This has had tremendous impact on polymer producers. The WEEE Directive makes the producer (which refers to either the manufacturer itself or the importer) of electronic and electrical goods responsible for shouldering the costs of recycling and recovering these equipment once they have reached "end-of-life". Private end-users (such as households) will be able to return their waste electronic and electrical equipment to these producers without charge. Reuse and recycling of the returned WEEE or their components must first be considered before material recovery itself. WEEE Directive aims to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing re-use and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment, and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge. The Directive applies to the following categories of electrical and electronic equipments: large and small household appliances; IT and telecommunication equipments; consumer equipments; lighting equipments; electrical and electronic tools (with the exception of large-scale stationary industrial tools). It also applies to toys, leisure and sports equipment; medical devices (with the exception of implanted and infected products); monitoring and control instruments; automatic dispensers. Member States are to minimise the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as unsorted municipal waste and are to set up separate collection systems for WEEE. In the case of electrical and electronic waste, Member States are to ensure that: • Final holders and distributors can return such waste free of charge; • Distributors of new products ensure that waste of the same type of equipment can be returned to them free of charge on a one-to-one basis; • Producers are allowed to set up and operate individual or collective take-back systems; • The return of contaminated waste presenting a risk to the health and safety of personnel may be refused. Producers must make provision for the collection of waste that is not from private households. Member States must ensure that all waste electrical and electronic equipment collected is transported to authorised treatment facilities. Producers must set up systems for the recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment collected separately. By 31 December 2006, the rate of recovery by an average weight per appliance must be at least * 80% in the case of large domestic appliances and automatic dispensers, * 70% in the case of small domestic appliances, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment and monitoring and control instruments, and * 75% in the case of IT and telecommunications equipment and consumer equipment. By the same date, the rate of component, material and substance reuse and recycling by an average weight per appliance must be at least * 80% in the case of discharge lamps, * 75% in the case of large domestic appliances and automatic dispensers * 50% in the case of small domestic appliances, lighting equipment, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment and monitoring and control equipment, and * 65% in the case of IT and telecommunications equipment and consumer equipment. Producers or third parties acting on behalf of producers record the electrical and electronic waste entering and leaving treatment and recovery or recycling facilities in weight registers. The European Parliament and the Council are to set new targets for recovery, recycling and reuse. Producers must provide for the financing of the collection, at least from the collection point, of the treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment. When a producer places a product on the market, he must furnish a guarantee concerning the financing of the management of his waste. Such a guarantee may take the form of participation by the producer in financing schemes, a recycling insurance or a blocked bank account. Member States may provide that users be made responsible, partly or totally, for this financing. When historical waste is not replaced, by new equivalent products, the costs shall be provided for by the users other than private households. Users of electrical and electronic equipment in private households must have access to the necessary information on the requirement not to mix this type of waste with unsorted municipal waste and to ensure separate collection, collection and take-back systems, their role in the recovery of waste, the effects of such waste on the environment and health, and the meaning of the symbol which must appear on the packaging of such equipment (a crossed-out wheeled bin). Producers must mark electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market with the above-mentioned symbol. For each new type of electrical or electronic equipment, producers must provide, within one year after it is placed on the market, information on its reuse and treatment. Such information is to identify the components and materials present in the equipment and the location of dangerous substances and preparations. Such information must be communicated to reuse centres and treatment and recycling facilities. Member States are to draw up a register of producers and keep information on the quantities and categories of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market, collected, recycled and recovered in their territory. Every three years, they must also send a report to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive. Lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in electrical and electronic equipment must be replaced by other substances. However, as it is not always possible to completely abandon these substances, the Commission provides for a tolerance level of 0.1% for lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and a tolerance level of 0.01% for cadmium. In addition, certain uses specified in the Annex to the Directive are tolerated. Member States are to determine the penalties applicable to breaches of this Directive. The directive was initially scheduled to be effective by August of 2005, but numerous concerns such as the costs of producer compliance have led to the postponement of the directive's enforcement to January, 2006. Other countries not belonging to EU have begun to adopt similar rules/directives. China is already planning its own equivalents of WEEE and RoHS. What began as purely European legislation is gaining widespread popularity and expanding.