§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on whether printer cartridges are included in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [143954]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 15 December 2003]: The WEEE Directive applies to whole products placed onto the market and not to individual components, sub-assemblies or consumables, for example, computer memory chips and graphics cards. The Government believes that printer cartridges fall into this cadre of items and are not separately covered. The eco-design provisions of the WEEE Directive would therefore not apply to them. However, these kinds of item would be included when retained within whole products, like a printer, when these become waste and are separately collected for recovery and recycling.