The European Parliament made several amendments to Council’s proposals at that point. This included raising the target for recovery of large household appliances (such as fridges and washing machines) to 90% by an average weight per appliance from the Council’s original suggestion of 80%.
It also raised recovery targets for PCs, phones, radios and hi-fi equipment to 85% by an average weight per appliance from the Council’s 75%, as well as bringing forward the target deadlines to December 31 2005. The Council proposal that small firms should be excluded from the legislation was also rejected.
The consultation is the last step before the adoption of the directive at an EU level in the autumn, though individual member countries are allowed 18 months following adoption before they transpose it into EU law.
Elaborating on the timing of the directive’s final enforcement, a government spokesman said: “it will be late 2004 at least before the impact of the Directive kicks in. Government and industry will be given time to get organised.”
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