As reported by Euwid, on 22 November 2020, the Federal Council discussed the amendment to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (take-e-way reported: ElektroG4 amendment adopted) and once again called for a ban on disposable e-cigarettes, supported by the recommendation of the Environment Committee. The reasons for this are environmental pollution, fire hazards in disposal facilities and the waste of resources caused by lithium-ion batteries. The chamber of the federal states also voted in favour of limiting the so-called counter model to certain groups of old devices containing batteries. The federal states intend to limit the obligation to use the counter model to collection groups 2, 3 and 5, i.e. display screens, lamps, small appliances and small IT and telecommunications devices. For refrigerators, other large appliances and photovoltaic modules from collection groups 1, 4 and 6, however, the "supervisory model" will continue to apply.
The committee's recommendation that producers should contribute to the costs of taking back, collecting and properly disposing of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) at recycling centres met with approval (take-e-way reported: More ElektroG costs required). The Environment Committee's recommendation to review and possibly abandon the system of shared product responsibility did not find a majority in the Bundesrat plenary session. Calls for stricter information obligations and reuse quotas also failed to gain majority support.
The amendment is now to be negotiated further in the Bundestag. Here you can find the Bundesrat's position on the draft of a second law amending the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act.
If you have any questions about the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act, please contact the take-e-way consulting team at beratung@take-e-way.de or +49/40/750687-0
