International Association of Electronic Waste Producer Responsibility Organisations
Tackling the e-waste challenge
Digital Solutions for a Circular Electronics Value Chain – thought paper and webinar
International E-Waste Day: 57.4M Tonnes Expected in 2021
Joint industry statement regarding the Digital Services Act
Discussion paper | Towards circular e-waste management: how can digitalisation help?
Too much e-waste ends up in the bin: International E-Waste Day to focus on the role of consumers in improving rates of reuse, refurbishment and recycling.
#PROsAtWork REPIC hits 3million tonnes milestone
#PROsAtWork Karo Sambhav: Leveraging strategic alliances to drive grassroots action in India
New report issued: tackling fires caused by lithium batteries in e-waste
New WEEE Forum paper: issues with PV panels & compliance with EPR legislation
WEEE forum gains new members and expands its twinning programme
International E-Waste Day - 14 October 2021
The 4th edition of the #ewasteday took place on 14 October 2021.
According to the UN, in 2021 each person on the planet will produce on average 7.6 kg of e-waste, meaning that a massive 57.4 million tonnes will be generated worldwide. Only 17.4 per cent of this electronic waste containing a mixture of harmful substances and precious materials will be recorded as being properly collected, treated and recycled.
Many initiatives are taken to tackle this growing concern, but none of them can be fully effective without the active role and correct education of consumers. This year’s International E-Waste Day focused on the crucial part each of us has in making circularity a reality for e-products.
WEEE Flows report and WEEE Forum's vision paper
After nearly two decades since the creation of EU legislation on WEEE and despite huge effort and advancement, most Member States have not reached the WEEE collection targets.
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research highlights in its latest study the factors that impede formal/official collection and concludes that, in order to achieve the minimum collection rate, Member States have to divert a high proportion of WEEE that currently goes unreported. In its vision paper, based on UNITAR's report, the WEEE Forum lays out four vital steps that need to be taken to ensure the system is fair and achievable and conveys its vision for the future of Extended Producer Responsibility.
Our members
There are currently 44 members of the WEEE Forum. These members are not-for-profit WEEE producer responsibility organisations (or ‘producer compliance schemes’) mainly in Europe, but we have recently expanded globally and are now pleased to include members from six different continents.
Our members represent electrical and electronic equipment manufacturers covering the whole spectrum of production from small electronic devices, such as cellphones, through to large household appliances like refrigerators and other large items, for example photovoltaic panels.
Collected WEEE
Since their foundation, the producer responsibility organisations of the WEEE Forum have collected, de-polluted and recycled or sent for preparation for re-use 21.7 million tonnes of WEEE. 2.7 million tonnes of this was collected in 2019, which was almost two thirds of WEEE collected in Europe during that year.
In addition, our members operate over 114,000 WEEE collection points and two thirds of them are market leaders in their countries.