The European Commission worked for a number of years to understand the environmental impact of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), and concluded that the volume, the toxicity of components, and the relative ease of recovery and recycling of important materials justified EU-wide action.

In the UK, the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 (RoHS) apply throughout the UK. These regulations limit the amounts of hazardous substances that can be included in new EEE placed on the market anywhere in the EU.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations aim to reduce the amount of EEE waste going to landfill, and increase recovery, reuse and recycling rates. The regulations came into force on 2 January 2007. Producers had to join a compliance scheme by 15 March 2007. Producers have had to mark electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) since 1 April 2007. Full responsibility for treating and recycling household WEEE began on 1 July 2007.

There are certain requirements for WEEE relating to:

• separate collection, disposal and recycling
• standards for its treatment at authorised facilities
• collection, recycling and recovery targets.

The legislation contains retrospective elements, so many businesses have already been affected.

The European Parliament and EU Council have set the goal of reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill and reducing the hazardous substance content of electrical and electronic equipment. This is in light of the fact that WEEE is Europe's fastest growing waste stream - growing at three times the rate of other wastes.

With regard to WEEE, this goal is to be achieved through a much more environmentally aware approach to all aspects of the EEE product cycle. This is to include improved product design to allow for ease of dismantling (for recycling or re-use) and provision for comprehensive separate WEEE collection systems. These will allow WEEE to be easily returned by consumers then collected, transported and processed effectively and economically. The financing of such schemes is mainly to fall on the producers, although the consumers will inevitably see the effects of the proposal in raised product prices. Distinction is made between private households and users other than private households, to ensure that no additional costs are incurred by private households when disposing of WEEE.

As the WEEE directive is implemented, many people expect significant price rises for IT equipment - in the order of 10% - to pay for the cost of recycling. This means a cost now for a service that may or may not be used some years down the line. If companies were to make their own independent disposal arrangements, they might be able to make savings, both now and at time of disposal. The appropriate use of recycled and refurbished equipment as a part of the overall supply chain makes good ethical and commercial sense.

With regard to RoHS, the regulations complement the goal of the WEEE directive (reduce - reuse - recycle). It states that new EEE shall not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, poly-brominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), except in certain applications, and then only up to the acceptable limits quoted. There are many exemptions. 

From the 13 August 2005 producers will be made responsible for financing most of the collection, treatment, recycling and recovery activities. Producers are defined as companies that manufacture affected electrical or electronic equipment, resell equipment produced by other manufacturers, or import such equipment into a member state.