Written question asked by Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 May 2024, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 May 2024. It was answered by Lord Douglas-Miller (Conservative) on Thursday, 23 May 2024 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Electronic Equipment: Waste Disposal

Question: To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to invest in infrastructure to support the re-use, repair and re-manufacturing of e-waste products according to the waste hierarchy.

Answer: The Waste Prevention Programme for England: Maximising Resources, Minimising Waste (copy attached) commits the Government to prioritise measures to support the waste hierarchy in relation to electrical equipment. This includes consideration of ways to provide consumers and businesses with information on the environmental performance of electrical and electronic products, focussing on material resource efficiency aspects such as durability, reparability and recyclability. The Government has also introduced new eco-design requirements for a range of industrial appliances, white goods, electronic displays and lighting products, to increase their reparability. We have also published a consultation and call for evidence on potential reforms to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013. The review includes measures to ensure more WEEE is properly collected for reuse and recycling, considers new metrics to evaluate the performance of the WEEE system and wider proposals that would support the circular economy. We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and call for evidence and will publish a summary in due course.

Secondary information