News & Events

WEEE OPEN SCOPE COMING IN 2018 – WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

By Source:


Companies involved by the WEEE directive have adapted their organizations to provide relevant data to compliance schemes and to authorities. However, the existing system has almost 15 years now. Its time to update the classification system and this is what the EU has decided.

Since the revised WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) came into force, we know that from 15 August 2018 the scope previously described by the 10 WEEE categories  will be extended to a so-called open scope (Article 2, Para. 1b Directive 2012/19/EU). What does that mean? 


 

First of all the 10 WEEE categories will be replaced by the following 6 new categories listed in Annex III WEEE Directive:

  1. Temperature exchange equipment: fridges, freezers, air conditioning, etc.
  2. Screens, monitors, and equipment containing screens having a surface greater than 100cm²: TVs, computer monitors, etc.
  3. Lamps
  4. Large equipment (any external dimension more than 50cm): washing machines, dish washers, cooking stoge and hoven, cookers, luminaires, large printers, copying equipment, large equipment in general, etc.
  5. Small equipment (no external dimension more than 50cm): vacuum cleaners, calculators, video cameras, cameras, hifi equipment, watches and clocks, smoke detectors, payment systems, etc.
  6. Small IT and telecommunication equipment (no external dimension more than 50cm): mobile phones, tablets, routers, laptops, GPS, printers, etc.

For more details about equipment examples, see  the WEEE directive (2012/12/EU).