Weekly eWASA News – 16 Sep 21

“We need to rethink waste!” says Melanie Ludwig from The Organics Recycling Association of South Africa (ORASA). “In the Western Cape more than 40% of all waste delivered to landfills is organic waste. By recycling our organic waste into compost, we have the power to reverse climate change and replenish the health of our soils! Households can easily practice home composting to produce compost that can be used in their own gardens, while on a larger scale and to ensure sustainability, composting at community gardens can grow wholesome food for less fortunate communities.” read more on SA Good News or visit www.orasa.org.za

Significant amounts of photovoltaic (PV) panels are placed on the market (POM) in Europe every year, and there has been a huge increase over the past three years with the European Union increasing the cumulative installed solar power capacity by 15% to 137.2 GW by the end of 2020. A new WEEE Forum paper looks at the effect this has on meeting the targets of the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) legislation and calls on legislators and policy makers to address the issues it causes.

PV panels have been in the scope of Directive 2012/19/EU on WEEE since August 2012 and are classified as category 4: “large equipment”. Member States are supposed to ensure that collection targets for this category are achieved on a yearly basis. From 2019, the collection targets to be achieved are 65% of the average weight of EEE POM in the three preceding years in the Member State concerned, or 85% of WEEE generated on the territory of that Member State. Read more here.

All existing producers and producer responsibility of EEE organisations must register with the DFFE  before 5 November 2021.

Download the full EPR regulations, regulations pertaining to the e-waste sector, and the lighting sector. On 19 January, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Barbara Creecy, postponed the implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations to 5 May 2021.

Extended Producer Responsibility applies to the following identified products or class of products:

• Large equipment (any external dimension more than 100cm)
• Medium equipment ( any external dimension between 50 and 100cm)
• Small equipment (no external dimension more than 50 cm)
• Batteries

Wondering if you are a producer? Click the link to find out. Contact us to discuss the eWASA EPR Plan.

To register as a producer follow this link – http://sawic.environment.gov.za/epr/regindex.php