Japan,the European Union,and Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Recycling: Key Lessons Learned

Abstract

This article considers how Japan and the EU manage the recycling of consumer appliances and PCs/cellular phones through a review of their current collection and treatment systems for WEEE (waste electronic and electrical equipment), and on the basis of its findings offers recommendations for the improvement of these systems. We hope thereby to provide information that will be helpful for the better management of WEEE in developed countries as well as in our own. On the basis of our findings, we make the following recommendations: (1) that if Japan hopes to increase its collection rate of WEEE, it has to change its system from one where payment is made at the time of disposal to one where payment is made in advance, whereas the EU has to offer both users and recyclers greater incentives to collect more WEEE; (2) that, within the Japanese system, we have to reduce the cost without reducing the quality of recycling, which, because consumers pay at the time of disposal, is too expensive, whereas the EU must restore the former quality of its recycling, which has been allowed to deteriorate because of the pressure to reduce costs; and (3) that Japan and the EU need to set up a common fund that will enable them to cooperate in the collection and treatment of WEEE to oversee the problems occasioned by the practice of cross-border recycling.