Overview of the WEEE directive and its implementation in the Nordic countries : national realisations and best oractices
Ylä-Mella, Jenni; Poikela, Kari; Lehtinen, Ulla; Tanskanen, Pia; Román, Elisabeth; Keiski, Riitta L.; Pongrácz, Eva (2014-10-01)
Jenni Ylä-Mella, Kari Poikela, Ulla Lehtinen, et al., “Overview of the WEEE Directive and Its Implementation in the Nordic Countries: National Realisations and Best Practices,” Journal of Waste Management, vol. 2014, Article ID 457372, 18 pages, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/457372
Copyright © 2014 Jenni Ylä-Mella et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe201803286225
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Electronic devices and mobile applications have become a part of everyday life. Fast technological progress and rapid product obsolescence have led to the rapid growth of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Due to hazardous substances and also substantial amounts of valuable materials contained in electrical and electronic equipment, the European Union has implemented Directives related to WEEE, in order to reduce negative environmental and health impacts and to improve material recovery of valuable substances from WEEE. This paper provides an overview of the WEEE Directive and its implementation to national legislations in Finland, Sweden, and Norway and, further, describes how the nationwide WEEE recovery infrastructures in the Nordic countries have been built. The Nordic WEEE management systems are evaluated from the point of resource efficiency and best practices. Evidently, the WEEE management systems as established in the Nordic countries have advantages because the WEEE collection rates in 2012 were 12 kg/inhab./year, in Finland, 16 kg/inhab./year, in Sweden, and 27 kg/ inhab./year, in Norway, despite their sparsely populated nature. The Swedish and Norwegian experiences, especially, with long history of WEEE recovery indicate that increasing consumer awareness leads to more environmentally sound behaviour and improves recovery efficiency.
Kokoelmat
- Avoin saatavuus [29998]