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Originally, the directive was also going to place some of the burden on business users as well as the manufacturers. Business users would have been required to monitor their waste electrical and electronic items. However, it was decided that this would be unmanageable, so in fact there are no special requirements placed on business users regarding the dumping of WEEE.

Meet the producers

As we have established, the burden for funding the collection and recycling of WEEE lies with the manufacturers of the electric equipment you use. The directive refers to the manufacturer as the producer. 'Producer', however, is a broad term. You could find your business classed as a producer if you send out promotional electronic gifts stamped with your company name. A retailer or supermarket that sells own-brand products, such as laptops, is also considered a producer.

HP's environmental takeback compliance manager Kirstie McIntyre explained their position: "HP is definitely a producer. Everything we make is in the scope of the WEEE Directive. We are also a retailer, through our online HP store. As a producer, we've had to mark products with the WEEE wheelie-bin symbol. That wasn't a problem in the UK, as we've been doing it in Europe for two years."

The appliance of compliance

The EA decides the level of responsibility that a producer has for recycling and recovering WEEE. It does this based on the amount of product the producer has placed on the market. As part of the WEEE Directive,

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the producer is required to join a producer compliance scheme (PCS). These schemes are organisations that are approved by the EA. For example, the PCS to which HP belongs is the European Recycling Platform (ERP, www.erp-recycling.org). ERP is a compliance scheme founded in 2002 by a number of big-brand electronics companies, including HP.

According to the Industry Council for Electronic Equipment Recycling (ICER), there are 3,200 producers registered with a PCS. But many manufacturers have not yet registered. The EA has started a cold-calling programme to make these producers aware of their obligation to join a compliance scheme. It is the compliance scheme that handles the audit trail that ensures producers follow the directive.

Electric and electronic products fall into two categories. There are the products bought by individuals for household use, also known as business-to-consumer (B2C). Then there are those products bought by non-household users, usually refered to as business-to-business (B2B). The producer's obligations will differ depending on whether their product is B2C or B2B.

Producers of B2C WEEE are entirely responsible for its treatment and collection. Producers of B2B WEEE also have to foot the bill for collection and treatment, but only if the products were put on sale after 13th August 2005 or if the business user is buying like for like. If the business user isn't buying like for like and the products are 'historic' WEEE (that is, put on the market before 13th August 2005), the business user has to arrange and pay for the collection of the discarded items, as they did before the directive came into force.

Through its compliance scheme, the producer reports to the EA exactly how much product has been sold, in weight. A fictional IT company may have sold 20 tonnes of computer equipment in the year, for example. The EA then takes all the other reports it has received for each category and adds it up to get the total weight. There are 10 categories in total, and there are 37 compliance schemes in operation.