Recycling systems for electrical and electronic equipment that fulfil European Union requirements must be operating in less than a year. In Finland solutions are being prepared at present in a networked project called AWARENESS, which brings together different parties.

The project is based on the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive, according to which national legislation concerning an electrical and electronic waste system must be ready by August 13, 2005 at the latest. The directive covers a wide group of electrical and electronic equipment used by consumers and companies, ranging from domestic appliances to professional electronics.

Many EU countries already have systems that are in operation. In Finland legislation will bring new responsibilities for producers and importers.

"Producers and importers will have to arrange and finance the recycling and utilization of waste electrical and electronic equipment. The law will require that identification and recycling markings be used on the equipment and that information be passed on to the authorities, customers and the recycling industry," says Carina Wiik, a specialist from Technology Industries of Finland, which is coordinating and financing the project.

The aim of the project is to develop not only a recycling system but also an Internet-based reporting and management system that will support the solution.

Fifty companies involved

The network bringing together the various parties will require cooperation in several areas. Taking part in the development work, besides producers and importers in the electrical and electronics industry, are the recycling industry, the Ministry of the Environment and federations representing the producers and importers. Other interest groups such as local government and waste management companies are also cooperating.

There are already 50 companies in the sector that have joined the project, which began in the spring of 2003. Because of the diversity of the products the project has been arranged on a product-group basis: electrical building maintenance technology, lighting equipment, telecommunications, IT and office technology, and professional electronics.

"The firms are organized so that the necessary producer alliances can be formed and agreement reached on a level playing field. The funding principles must be decided through cooperation, so that costs caused by a producer's responsibility can be covered and divided fairly," Wiik says.

Support from information system

Reporting to authorities and companies' obligation to inform customers and the recycling industry will be made more efficient with an Internet-based information system, which will undergo pilot tests in the autumn of 2004.

"The efficient management of information flows and a utilization network will reduce the costs that the handling of recycling will cause to companies and their alliances," Wiik explains.

The project will also cooperate closely with a research project being led by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) that is developing and testing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which will be able to improve the monitoring of products' life cycle, and the management and recycling of product information.

Vaisala Oyj, which develops measuring systems for meteorology, industry and environmental technology, is one of the companies involved in the Awareness project.