Since the early 1990s, the concept of 'producer responsibility' has been discussed for various industrial sectors including the disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment. In Germany, the first attempts at introducing national regulations were made as early as 1992 by the then Federal Minister of the Environment, Professor Klaus Töpfer, who endeavoured to establish German regulations governing the disposal of electrical and electronic waste. This draft legislation was, however, never enacted as it became apparent that the EU was preparing a related European guideline in this area.
The core concept of the European guideline is that manufacturers must bear the costs for the collection, transport and recycling of the electrical equipment that they produce.
The current state of this draft legislation on waste electrical and electronic equipment, as formulated by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, can be accessed at: