The revision of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) regulatory framework is a critical opportunity for the EU lawmakers to create a truly harmonised system for the responsible management of electronic waste. This policy memorandum seeks to support the EU in designing a framework that harmonises Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes and the role and nature of Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), ensuring consistent application of rules, robust governance, financial transparency, and a genuine Single Market of secondary raw materials and WEEE management services. A harmonised EPR framework will prevent regulatory arbitrage, strengthen enforcement, and enable economies of scale, whilst ensuring high environmental performance and proper accountability of relevant stakeholders. The memorandum builds on good practice and aims to translate EPR into a coherent, operational and future-proof system.

Four Key Pillars of EPR 2.0: A “new generation” WEEE management model:

1. Clear Focus: The future WEEE Regulation should define realistic and pragmatic objectives to support the transition toward a strong European circular economy. It should be focused on the end-of-life phase of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) whilst allowing other pieces of legislation to promote product durability, upgradeability and repairability, and to support circular business models such as product‑as‑a‑service.

2. Robust and Coherent Framework: Producers should be fully empowered through a robust and coherent regulatory, financial and operational framework that enables PROs acting on their behalf to meet policy objectives efficiently and transparently.

3. Single Market: In line with the objectives of the Circular Economy Act, the future Regulation should establish a genuine Single Market for secondary raw materials and WEEE services to enable economies of scale and access to best available treatment capacities.

4. Enhanced Enforcement: In order to counter illegal, sub-standard WEEE operations, there is no alternative to increased enforcement (inspection, prosecution and sentencing).

Read more in the Policy Memorandum