The WEEE Directive, and its sister Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), has been placed on the Public Register of Council Documents of the European Union. EU Member States are now obliged to implement the regulations by 13th August 2004.

UK has until September 2005 to introduce take-back systems and collection facilities for all types of electrical and electronic equipment. The WEEE must be collected separately rather than ending up in unsorted municipal waste. The Directives include a collection target of 4kg per capita per year for WEEE, a ban on the use of heavy metals and toxic flame retardants in goods by July 2006 and the ruling that individual producers should be responsible for financing the waste treatment of their own products.

The Directives (0.3 MB) are available from the Commission's website at:

Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment
http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Seek-Deliver&LANGUAGE=en&SERVICE=eurlex&COLLECTION=oj&DOCID=2003l037p00190023

Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
http://europa.eu.int/cgi-bin/eur-lex/udl.pl?REQUEST=Seek-Deliver&LANGUAGE=en&SERVICE=eurlex&COLLECTION=oj&DOCID=2003l037p00240038