The Swedish WEEE system — Challenges and recommendations

The directive in WEEE has been in effect since 2001 in the European Union (EU) and Sweden has been the best performance since it was launched. This study looks into how the various stakeholders are playing their role in the system, why was it successful and what are the challenges ahead for the system to further improve and the bring up the rate of WEEE recycling in the country. This work is done by interviewing and visiting the various stakeholders involved in the Swedish WEEE system including the Swedish EPA, Swedish Waste Management, El-Kretsen which is the association representing the manufacturers, the recyclers that are providing the EoL services in the system and consumers of the recycling centres. The study revealed that the system had performed well by virtue of the common understanding and general awareness of the public adding on to the fact that the consumption rate of EEE is also high in Sweden. All the stakeholders displayed a sense a responsibility towards pushing for higher volume to be collected. Many issues that are occurring in collecting WEEE are inherited from the earlier life cycle stages particularly in design and manufacturing. It was also found out in the study that it is more economically viable for the EoL stakeholders to operate WEEE collection as compared to the past due to the growing demands of resources. The processing capacity at times is lagging behind the collection rate. Recommendations for improving the system from both the system level and technical level are also mentioned subsequently in the paper.