§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive on the amount of waste electrical goods illegally abandoned in public places. [38123]
§ Mr. MeacherThe Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is still in draft. We are currently at Common Position stage, and for this reason we have not yet made any such assessment.
The Directive requires distributors to take back waste electrical goods free of charge to the end user. This take-back provision may be in-store, on delivery or through an alternative arrangement, eg. curbside collection. Furthermore, the Directive requires member states to ensure that users are given necessary information about the return and collection systems available to them and about their role in contributing to re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery of WEEE.
We therefore believe that the Directive will make a positive contribution to increasing the amount of waste electrical goods recovered and recycled and we see no reason to anticipate an increase in the illegal abandoning of WEEE in public places.