The WEEE Forum hosted its prestigious biennial conference on 20th and 21st September 2012 at The Tower Hotel in London. With over 200 delegates from all over Europe attending the event, it provided a valuable opportunity for delegates to discuss the position of European political institutions and other leading stakeholders on the Recast.
The theme of the 2012 conference, which was hosted by Repic, the UK's largest Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme, focused on the relationship between the revised WEEE Directive and the other 'three EEEs' (environment, economy and employment).
During the first day of the event, delegates had the chance to listen to key spokespeople discussing the positive impact that the effective transposition of the WEEE Directive could have. Speakers included Mattia Pellegrini, head of metals, minerals and raw materials at the European Commission, and Gunter Pauli, founder of Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI).
During day two of the conference, delegates were invited to a series of panel discussions chaired by key stakeholders in the WEEE market, who summarised some of the most salient issues arising from the WEEE Recast and outlined best practice examples of where processes and systems had been implemented efficiently.
The second day also provided a platform for discussion and debate via interactive question and answer sessions with each of the panels, covering key issues such as the new WEEE collection targets and the preservation of resources (including the future contribution of the take-back systems).
José Ramón Carbajosa, chairman of the Board of the WEEE Forum, commented: "With the critical timing of the WEEE Recast it has never been more important for us to share our experiences and work together to implement processes that maximise the efficiency of the systems we have in place. Our objective was therefore to provide a forum for discussion of the elements that we must consider if the Directive is to be realised.
"It is not often that we get an opportunity to get so many key stakeholders together, so it was a very valuable experience. Both the speakers and delegates raised some extremely insightful and poignant points, inspiring all of us to look beyond basic compliance when transposing the new Directive, and encouraging us to consider the role we play in making the new Directive as effective as possible."
Philip Morton, CEO of Repic, commented: "We will all need to work together to capture, reuse, recycle and treat as much WEEE as possible through proper registration and reporting in the system. The two day event was incredibly interesting and we're very proud to have been invited to host such a critical event at a key point in the transposition of the WEEE Recast."
The WEEE Forum is a European association representing the interests of 41 electrical and electronic waste collection and recycling organisations run on behalf of producers.
To find out more about The WEEE Forum, please visit www.weee-forum.org, or to download the presentations from the conference see: www.weee-forum.org/events. Or for more information about Repic visit www.repic.co.uk.