The WEEE Forum a.i.s.b.l., set up in 2002, is a Brussels-based international not-for-profit association speaking for 36 not-for-profit electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) producer compliance schemes – alternatively referred to as ‘producer responsibility organisations’ (PRO). The 36 PROs are based in Europe, Australasia and North America: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Greece, France, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It is the biggest organisation of its kind in the world. In 2016, its member organisations reported collection and proper de-pollution and recycling of 2,100,000 tonnes of WEEE. Members in 2018: Amb3E, ΑΝΑΚΥΚΛΩΣΗ ΣΥΣΚΕΥΩΝ, ASEKOL, Australia New Zealand Recycling Platform, Ecodom, Ecosystèmes, Eco Tic, ECOTIC, Ecotrel, EES-Ringlus, EGIO, Electrocyclosis Cyprus, ElektroEko, Elektrowin, El-Kretsen, elretur, Environ, EPRA, Fotokiklosi, Norsirk, Recipo, Recupel, Remedia, RENAS, Repic, Retela, RoRec, SENS e-Recycling, SWICO, UFH, Úrvinnslusjóður, Wecycle, WEEE Ireland, WEEE Malta, WEEE Recycle and Zeos.
The WEEE Forum members represent a network of 31,000 producers and are responsible for the collection from over 114,000 collection points (municipalities and retailers) and transporting WEEE for treatment at 500 treatment plants.
The mission of the WEEE Forum is to:
- optimise the operational efficiency of the member organisations' WEEE management systems, while striving for excellence and continuous improvement of their environmental performance,
- provide a platform for co-operation at European level and the exchange of best practices,
- develop standards and technical specifications to fulfill producer responsibility on behalf of producers,
- assist its members in the development of their activities in a sustainable manner within the existing regulatory and legislative framework,
- create a forum of support and knowledge for our members to make expert and constructive contributions to the general debate on the management of electrical and electronic waste.
The WEEE Forum can tap into operational knowledge of the WEEE market in terms of collection, logistics and processing. It is the owner of the Key Figures platform, the LibraWEEE and the WEEE Directory - databases with facts and figures, literature and networks about the WEEE market- and some of its members have collaborated with UNU on ‘WEEE flows’ studies: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Romania, Portugal and Italy. The WEEE Forum member compliance schemes provide data and know-how.
Role in the Project
WEEE Forum will be supporting the Project Coordinator (WRFA) in legal, contractual, ethical, financial,
administrative and management tasks. WEEE Forum is the leader of WP5 (Stakeholder Participation,
Communication & Dissemination) and within this work package will be mainly responsible for developing the communication plan in Task 5.1, and lead Task 5.3 “Clustering activities” and Task 5.4 ´´Communication´´. Furthermore, this partner is involved in all other WPs and will be leading Task 1.2 “Mapping of current normative requirements and verification mechanisms”.
WEEE Forum has involved in the project as Linked 3rd parties two of its members: ECODOM (Italy) and Electrao (Portugal).