What does producer responsibility mean?

The Finnish waste legislation, based on the EU's WEEE directive, that entered into force on 1 September 2004 prescribes that the producer of electrical and electronic equipment organises the recycling and waste management of the waste arising from the products put on the market by the producer an is liable for the costs of the waste management. Producer responsibility entered into force on 13 August 2005.

Is our company a producer?

A producer refers to a manufacturer and professional importer of electrical and electronic equipment and to a seller who sells equipment under his own product brand. A list of electrical and electronic equipment subject to producer responsibility is attached as appendix 1 to the Government Decree 852/04.

In the Government Decree on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment waste electrical and electronic equipment refers to electrical and electronic equipment that must be deemed as waste, including all components, subassemblies and wearing materials which are part of the product when it is put out of use.

The legislation covers also discharge lamps i.e. fluorescent lamps (incl. various pin-socket lamps and energy saving lamps) and gas discharge lamps (e.g. mercury, blended, sodium, and metal halide lamps) Only filament bulbs and halogen lamps fall outside the scope of producer responsibility.

What are the producer's responsibilities?

A producer must:

• Organise separate collection of collectible waste electrical and electronic equipment, necessary storage and delivery to preliminary treatment plants. In addition the network of reception locations must be so comprehensive that the end-user of the product has a reasonable possibility nation-wide to hand over the product for recycling, utilisation or otherwise to the waste management system.
• To equip products put on the market after 18 August 2005 with a marking indicating the producer of the equipment with a separate mark and a marking indicating that the product was put on the market after 18 August 2005.
• To provide pre-processing plants and household equipment users with information on the collection systems and locations and to provide the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Pirkanmaa annual information about products put on the market and the accrual of products put out of use.
• To submit an application to the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Pirkanmaa for registration in the producer file, including information about the reception site network and agreements related to waste management organisation.
• To give sufficient collateral to the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Pirkanmaa for equipment used in households, such as recycling guarantee or a closed bank account, for fulfilling the waste management obligations.

The easiest way to fulfil our obligations?

The easiest way for a company to fulfil its obligations is to join a producer organisation that, on behalf of its member companies, organises competitive bidding for collection point, transport, recycling, reporting, and waste management services, and concludes agreements about them with municipalities and businesses of the industry.

Taking care of the producer responsibility in other EC countries

The WEEE directive is a framework directive and it must be transposed into national law by each of the EC member states. Each country has transposed the directive differently and if your company puts EEE on the market in member states other than Finland, you must check whether your company is affected by the Directive in those member states. No single organisation can provide effective European-wide compliance.

WEEE Forum is an organisation for non-profit compliance schemes across Europe. You can contact compliance shemes in other EC countries simply by filling in a single form in WEEE Forum.

Other producer responsibilities

In addition electrical and electronic equipment producer responsibility concerns producers and importers of following product: vehicles, tyres, batteries and accumulators, paper, packaging. On the web-page of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Pirkanmaa you can check if other producer responsibilities in the Finnish Waste Law concern your company: Producer responsibility in waste management.

A summary of producer responsibilities and reporting obligations that can be taken care of through Elker Group's producer organisations: Producer responsibility summary