What gets measured gets managed – does it? Uncovering the waste electrical and electronic equipment flows in the European Union

Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) is valued for its usability, generating an important waste stream, but overall information on their flows through society is generally not available. Data on End-of-Life (EoL) flows is scattered, unstructured, with varying classifications and formats, and uncertain levels of data quality and availability. This provides a big challenge of a structured mapping of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) flows, both officially reported as collected and complementary flows (the term refers to all flows not documented at a national level via designated official compliance schemes). To address these issues, a model quantitatively describing the WEEE flows has been developed based on the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/699 and WEEE Directive collection targets. Consequently, it evaluates the impacts of WEEE Directive policies that have been adopted in the past. The obtained results provide an insight to improve collection targets through multidimensional drivers, i.e., economic policies, legal framework, and sustainability approach that are needed to be set in waste management.

HABIB Hina;  WAGNER Michelle;  BALDE Kees;  HERRERAS Lucia;  HUISMAN Jacob;  DEWULF Jo; 

2022-03-04

ELSEVIER

JRC128588

1879-0658 (online),    0921-3449 (print),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344922000702,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128588,   

10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106222 (online),