Affected products

• Fluorescent lamps
• Compact fluorescent lamps
• Discharge lamps, including high-pressure sodium-vapor lamps and metal-vapor lamps
• Low-pressure sodium-vapor lamps
• Other light fixtures or devices for propagation or control of light, except filament lights

Products produced by the lamp industry have a special role in waste disposal. About 80% of waste equipment is made up of lamps. Their share of the total weight of electrical waste is only about 1% however. The waste disposal costs per lamp total to about 10-50% of the production costs. The costs for collection, transport and recycling are shown separately on the invoice by OSRAM.

The WEEE directive does not specify recycling for the following:

• Filament lamps, including halogen bulbs

Implementation of manufacturers' responsibilities

Based on the 'polluter pays' principle, the WEEE directive delegates responsibility for the organization and financing of the environmentally friendly disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment at the end of a product's lifecycle to the producer.

In most countries, the CRSO - Collection and Recycling Service Organization - set up by the lamps industry organizes the collection, and also the environmentally friendly disposal, of waste goods for the sector.

The WEEE-lamps need not be sorted by the consumer according to producer or date of manufacture since the CRSOs are systems that care for all WEEE-lamps.

Private consumers can return WEEE-lamps at municipal collection points.

Definition of manufacturer

The Commission Communication of 30 July 1996 on review of the Community strategy for waste management states that, where the generation of waste cannot be avoided, it should be reused or recovered for its material or energy.

"Producer" means any person who, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance communication in accordance with Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts:

1. manufactures and sells electrical and electronic equipment under his own brand,
2. resells under his own brand equipment produced by other suppliers, a reseller not being regarded as the "producer" if the brand of the producer appears on the equipment, as provided for in subpoint (1.), or
3. imports or exports electrical and electronic equipment on a professional basis into a Member State.

What are a manufacturer's duties?

• To provide a system for accepting returned goods
• Communication
• Registration and calculation of cost of returns
• Reporting
• Collection and transport
• Recycling

The Commission Communication of 30 July 1996 on review of the Community strategy for waste management states that, where the generation of waste cannot be avoided, it should be reused or recovered for its material or energy.