The EU has set fresh targets for e-waste recycling, but campaigners argue not enough old equipment is being collected.

The EU Environment Council is looking to change from fixed collection quotas of 4kg of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) per person to percentages of how much is sold, as consumers buy more and more gadgets each year.

The EU Parliament had hoped for 65% of WEEE to be collected by member states including the UK, but those countries pushed it down to 45% for the next four years.

That's not good enough, according to recycling charity Computer Aid. "We are frustrated that the European Council is taking such a softly-softly approach in addressing the looming e-waste crisis," said Haley Bowcock, advocacy officer for the group.

On top of the weaker targets, the EU still doesn't separate reused computers from recycling targets - and Computer Aid believes more green benefits can be had by reusing PCs before they're recycled.

"Because the reuse target is not separated from the target for recycling, this is likely to mean that recycling gets favoured over reuse in practice, because current infrastructure is geared towards this management method," she said. "It is clear that we need to go much further when setting targets for e-waste recovery in order to reap the superior benefits of reuse over recycling.”

The new rules still need to be approved by the European Parliament before the directive comes into force.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/green_compu ... ampaigners

That directive suits next to no one as far as I can see, they'd need to come at it from a different angle to my mind...

The rules need to be improved. A ban on exporting e-waste would mean that that countries have to deal with their waste.