Regulations and market forces combined to success [electrical equipment recycling

Abstract

Although Norway began seriously to tackle the increasing problem of EE waste only relatively recently, it has become the first country in Europe to implement comprehensive take-back legislation-which is now the strictest in Europe, and perhaps the world. The economic burden is placed on the first link in the value chain, the producer/importer. Consumers and professionals/companies can deliver discarded EE products to the retailer, who is required to accept them free of charge and pass them on through the system for treatment, recycling and/or disposal. It is also free to deliver to authorized collection points. The system has been set up and is operated by the industry. Costs are determined by market forces; the system as a whole operates on commercial principles and is on course to meeting its targets. Developing the technology and working out the most cost-efficient solutions are crucial tasks best carried out by the industry itself rather than the authorities. Norway has come a long way in finding solutions (some rather unorthodox!) to the problem of EE waste. My hope is that we might be seen as a sort of laboratory, from which good results on a small scale (Norway is a small country) can be circulated, reproduced and developed in the wider world.