SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF EUROPEAN POLICIES IMPACTING ON EEE, BATTERIES AND THEIR END-OF-LIFE

The European “twin transition” is based on products and technologies built with different materials such as critical raw materials (CRMs) that are mainly mined and refined outside the EU. Supporting and partially replacing the supply of these CRMs with secondary material from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and waste batteries would reduce such dependency. The design, production and end-of-live management of these goods is regulated by several European policies. However, such large number of policies is not yet presented in an organized scheme that would support the producer and other stakeholders to fulfil their obligations. This work has the dual purpose: identify the European policies that impact on the entire life cycle of these two categories of products and provide a logical scheme of interconnection and dependence between the most relevant policies. After an initial phase of research and identification of the significant policies, an in-depth study of the policies of interest was conducted. Finally, the policies were organized in a scheme that defined hierarchies, connections, and dependencies between them. The study identifies 21 policies where the Green Deal and the Framework Directive are the main references. EEE and batteries productions are mainly influenced by the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Ecodesign Directive, and the REACH Regulation. EEE is also regulated by the WEEE and RoHS directives, while batteries by the Battery Regulation. This study can support producers and the other stakeholder involved in any part of the life cycle of EEE and batteries to identify the relevant and impacting policies.