WEEELABEX organisation aims to improve WEEE industry practices

Brussels, 25 April 2013 - Following the introduction of the WEEELABEX standards in April 2011, twenty-six waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) compliance schemes [1] have joined together to set up an official WEEELABEX [2] organisation, which will help to implement these standards across Europe.

The organisation, created on 17th April in Prague, is an international non-profit legal entity. It has been set-up to train auditors in the WEEELABEX standards, as well as to promote the adoption of these standards [3] by operators and member states as a means to improve WEEE management practices in Europe.

Once trained, WEEELABEX auditors will be qualified to approve operators’ WEEE treatment processes as ‘WEEELABEX processes’. Members of the WEEELABEX organisation will be required to recognise this conformity approval.

“The new organisation will provide assurance to producers and the public at large that the operators the WEEELABEX members work with meet the requirements set out in Directive 2012/19/EU on WEEE”, says Pascal Leroy, Secretary General of the WEEE Forum and project manager of the WEEELABEX project. “The WEEELABEX organisation is also expected to level the WEEE playing field and allow environmental inspection authorities to enforce legislation.”

Any auditor, regardless of the organisation they work for, can become a WEEELABEX auditor, provided they are eligible for the training programme and have successfully completed it.

Jaroslav Vladik, Chairman of the executive WEEELABEX Governing Council (WGC), comments: “The recast Directive requires the European Commission to request that standardisation organisations develop criteria for the treatment – including recovery, recycling, and preparing for re-use – of WEEE and that those standards should reflect the state of the industry. We believe that WEEELABEX is the perfect response to this requirement.”

At the organisation’s founding General Assembly, members elected the governing council: Jaroslav Vladik (Retela, Czech Republic); Christophe Pautrat (European Recycling Platform, France); Richard Toffolet (Eco-systèmes, France); Patrick Lampert (SENS e-recycling, Switzerland); Wayne Copley (Repic, United Kingdom); Martin Fišer (Asekol, Czech Republic); Peer Lund-Thomsen (el retur, Denmark) and Marco Sala (Ecodom, Italy). Jaroslav Vladik was elected chairman of the WGC. For certain matters, the WGC will be extended to include representatives of CECED, DIGITALEUROPE, LightingEurope and EERA.

For further information, please visit: https://www.weee-forum.org/weeelabexproject. See also FAQ.

ENDS

About the WEEE Forum

The WEEE Forum (www.weee-forum.org) is a European non-profit association speaking for 39 electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) producer compliance schemes – alternatively referred to as ‘producer responsibility organisations’ (PRO). It was set up in the early 2000s. The 39 PROs are based in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It is the biggest organisation of its kind in the world. In 2012, its member organisations reported collection and proper de-pollution and recycling of about 1.9 million tonnes of WEEE. Members in 2013: Amb3E, Appliances Recycling, Asekol, Asekol SK, EÅF, EcoAsimelec, Ecodom, Ecolec, Ecologic, Ecoped, ecoR’it, Eco-systèmes, Ecotic, Eco Tic, EEPA, EES-Ringlus, ElektroEko, Elektrowin, El-Kretsen, elretur, el retur, Envidom, Fotokiklosi, Lightcycle, Lumicom, RAEcycle, Recicla Canaria, Recupel, ReMedia, Repic, Retela, RoRec, SENS e-Recycling, SLRS, SWICO, UFH, Wecycle, WEEE Ireland and Zeos.

For more information, please contact: Pascal Leroy, Secretary General of the WEEE Forum and project manager of the WEEELABEX project – Phone +32 473 756 153, pascal.leroy@weee-forum.org.

Footnotes:

[1] The twenty-six producer compliance schemes who took part in the constituent General Assembly in Prague on April 17th are: Amb3E, Asekol, Budget Pack Environmental, EÅF, Ecodom, Ecolec, EcoLogic, Eco-systèmes, Eco Tic, Elektrowin, El-Kretsen, elretur, el retur, European Recycling Platform, Recupel, ReMedia, Repic, Retela, RoRec, SENS e-Recycling, SLRS, SWICO, UFH, Wecycle, WEEE Ireland and Zeos. All members, except European Recycling Platform and Budget Pack Environmental, are members of the WEEE Forum. The WEEELABEX organisation is independent from the WEEE Forum.

[2] WEEELABEX (‘WEEE label of excellence’) is the acronym of a project (2009-12) co-financed by LIFE, the environmental programme of the European Community (LIFE07 ENV/B/000041). The project was run by the WEEE Forum, in coalition with representatives of the producers’ and WEEE processing community. It started in 2009; the launch of the organisation is the culmination of the project. Apart from the standards and the set-up of the new organisation, the project has also resulted in proprietary audit process documents and reporting templates.

[3] The WEEELABEX standards lay down both administrative and technical requirements for operators handling, transporting, treating, preparing for re-use and processing WEEE, as well as downstream monitoring, de-pollution and reporting requirements. CENELEC, a European standards body, is currently processing those proprietary standards into official EN standards. 

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