WEEE Forum Cyprus event a success

WEEE Forum members had a productive and informative three days in Pyrgos, Cyprus in early May hosted by our Cypriot members WEEE Cyprus. Sessions covered EPR, online sales & free-riders (see below), GDPR & WEEE, the International E-Waste Day initiative, WEEE recycling on islands, plastics in WEEE and efficient WEEE collection.

Representatives from 18 member organisations attended the event with guests from a further 6 organisations also there. In all, 35 people were present and, as well as working and networking, attendees were given the opportunity to view the rich culture and history of this wonderful island.

EPR, online sales and free-riders

A well attended session on EPR, online sales and free-riders was held as part of the WEEE Forum members’ programme in Cyprus during May. Internet sales are a potential source of deliberate as well as unintentional free-riding by organisations that do not adhere to EPR. The audience and panel heard contributions from members ESR and Electrocyclosi, as well as from the EPA’s of Estonia, Germany and Ireland who shared their experiences of dealing with free-riders. All papers for this meeting are available here (WEEE Forum members only).

In addition, an event to discuss EPR, online sales and free-riders, jointly hosted by the WEEE Forum, EucoLight and EXPRA, was held in Brussels during June. Around 25 representatives from various companies, authorities and associations participated in this debate. Among them were individuals from the European Commission, Amazon, EUROPEN and the Belgium Packaging Commission as well as WEEE Forum members Recupel. short report of this event is available.

The WEEE Forum has been at the forefront of this debate and has been pushing for tighter control on behalf of its members. This timely event coincided with the publication of a report by the OECD covering this issue, which has been well received by the industry.

CEWASTE – Commission approves funding

We are pleased to announce that, as part of a wider consortium, we have received official confirmation from the European Commission that the CEWASTE project has been approved and reached the stage of Grant Agreement preparation!

CEWASTE will develop, validate and launch a voluntary certification scheme for the collection, transport and treatment facilities of WEEE containing significant amounts of valuable critical raw materials.

The two year project involving nine partners will launch at the end of 2018  and is led by the World Resources Forum Association.