Regulations and market forces combined to success [electrical equipment recycling]

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.