Under a new EU directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the electrical and electronics industries will be required to take back used computers, refrigerators and other scrap free of charge and recycle them according to environmentally friendly methods starting in 2005. This was agreed on 11 October by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament conciliation committee. The directive foresees minimum quotas of 50% (household appliances) to 75% (large appliances) for mechanical recycling of electrical and electronic equipment starting in 2007.

If the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament approve the compromise agreement, the new directive could take effect from 2003. Member states would then have until mid 2004 to transpose the legislation into national law. In any case, the process will consume considerable sums of money. The electrical-electronics industry in Germany, arguably the EU´s largest market for such products, has calculated annual costs of EUR 350-500m for the handling of an estimated 1.1m tonnes of scrap.