US Commercial Service teams up with ENVIRON for WEEE webinar

The US Commercial Service is part of the US Department of Commerce and its role is to anticipate and respond to the needs of US exporters to the European Union, especially new-to-export, small and medium sized businesses, as well as US businesses already operating in the EU.  One area that manufacturers and importers are struggling with is how to manage compliance with the European Commission Directive on Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE).  The complications arise because WEEE compliance requirements are different in each EU Member State.

To help companies to assess the issues and options for compliance for business products (B2B), the US Commercial Service has teamed up with ENVIRON to provide a webinar on WEEE take-back for B2B products in Europe.

To allow companies across the US and Europe to log into the web presentation and accompanying telephone conference, the webinar will be held on Tuesday 3 October at 11.00 am Eastern Time (8.00am Pacific Time, 4.00pm GMT, 5.00pm Central European Time).

Further details and registration information is available at http://www.buyusa.gov/newengland/weeewebinar.html

The WEEE Directive went into effect from August 2005 and requires manufacturers and importers to register as a WEEE producer and provide take-back systems for WEEE in EU Member States. The deadline and process for WEEE registration is different in each country.  Two countries coming up soon are France (30 November 2006) and the UK (15 March 2007).   Manufacturers and importers of business products (B2B) have an option to use their own websites to provide a single system for WEEE take-back across Europe.  Options for manufacturers and importers of consumer products (B2C) are limited and involve joining a collective compliance scheme in each Member State.

The webinar will address
-- The different WEEE take-back obligations for B2B and B2C products
-- Option to join schemes for B2B WEEE in each country: comparison of low & high cost schemes
-- Option to use producer’s website to manage take-back of B2B WEEE across EU Member States
-- Enabling the business end-user to arrange and pay for WEEE collection
-- Choosing a pan-European WEEE recycler and how recycling prices are falling across Europe
-- Question & Answer

Further information on ENVIRON’s web systems for WEEE compliance is available at www.b2bweee.com

Original text is here