LIFE - Enhancing Collection Of Small W/EEE and batteries (LIFE-ECOSWEEE)

Introduction

The growing mountain of e-waste is an issue of increasing concern. WEEE and batteries containing hazardous substances give rise to serious environmental pollution and health concerns if not sustainably managed. Furthermore, every product that is not collected for reuse or de-polluted and recycled represents a wasted opportunity in terms of loss of natural resources and energy, a decreasing supply of (critical and/or valuable) materials to feed into manufacturing, which in turn puts the sector’s resilience, the EU economy’s autonomy, and jobs in jeopardy.

Legislative Context

WEEE and Battery legislation have laid down ambitious collection and recovery targets. Yet, after twenty years of WEEE rules, Member States are falling short of reaching the EU minimum collection rate of 65%. The EU is committed to improving the small WEEE collection rate in the frameworks of the European Green Deal.

Project Overview

With the aim of practically testing several methods and incentives to increase the collection rate of small WEEE and portable batteries, the LIFE-ECOSWEEE project proposes to design and implement 10 new pilots in 8 Member States. These pilots will test the practicability, achievability, usefulness, and viability of different collection strategies and incentives.

Strategies to be Tested

Strategies to be tested include:

1. Deposit return
2. Buy back
3. Other reward schemes, e.g. donation, postal services
4. Other collection routes
5. Involvement of online retail
6. Financial aspects
7. Improvement of the collection network

Another 12 ongoing or planned initiatives carried out by producer responsibility organisations (PROs) will also provide direct input to the project.

Analysis and Evaluation

Results of the pilot implementation will be analysed based on pre-established criteria and indicators to measure the impacts and effectiveness (success) of the actions implemented. This will help define potential areas of improvement and provide recommendations to policymakers at Member State and EU levels.

Project Objectives

The project objectives include, amongst others:

• Preparation of 1 report and delivery of 2 briefings presenting findings and policy recommendations that will input the evaluation of WEEE legislation and the proposed Batteries Regulation and other policies in Europe, e.g. related to visible fee, reduced VAT for re-used WEEE, and waste shipments.
• Delivery of 1 report including a set of good practices for the exploitation, upscale, and sustainability of the project's results at Member State and EU level.
• Reaching at least 150 relevant practitioners at EU level in view of collecting various perspectives through the establishment of a Stakeholder Platform.