Sustainable transition of electronic products: WEEE and RoHS linking innovation to governance policies on electronic waste presentation at the workshop Politics and governance in sustainable socio-technical transitions 19

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Sustainable transition ofelectronic
productsWEEE and RoHS linking innovation to
governance policies on electronic
wastepresentation at the workshopPolitics and
governance in sustainable socio-technical
transitions19 21 September 2007, Blankensee,
Berlin

• Erik Hagelskjær Lauridsen, Assoc.Prof.
  ehl_at_ipl.dtu.dk
• Ulrik Jørgensen, Prof. uj_at_ipl.dtu.dk
• Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby

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The promise of WEEE

• I am particularly happy that we could convince
  Member States to strengthen the individual
  responsibility of producers for the waste from
  their products. This will be an important
  incentive to producers to take the environmental
  consequences into account already when they stand
  around the design table.
• (Environment Commissioner Margot Walström, 2002)

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WEEE directive

• Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment
• anticipated transition processes merged
• - waste handling systems aligned across Europe
• - sustainable innovation in electronic products
• distributing agency among the actors involved in
  the life cycle of electronic and electrical
  products
• configuring environmental governance
• case study of the implementation of the directive

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Electronic waste

• the background for the WEEE directive is the
  growing amount of electronic waste
• originating from industry and even more from
  private consumption
• electronic waste is complex and involves heavy
  metals, plastics, precious metals, and glass
  all the elements from the periodic table
• miniaturization and integration makes it
  difficult to separate the waste besides
  extracting the precious metals

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Waste as a socio-technical system

• previously electronic waste was defined and
  handled in rather different ways in Europe
• some countries had implemented extended public
  collection and treatment systems, while others
  had almost no separate electronic waste handling
• alignment of waste handling in EU25 was foreseen
  as a large problem (4 of GDP)
• today WEEE gives a common definition of
  electronic waste and places the responsibility
  for handling it on the producers and importers

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The impact of WEEE

• producers and importers are responsible for
  funding and organizing a waste handling system
• used products and re-used components and
  materials are not defined as waste
• large amounts of waste are exported as products
  to third world countries
• waste has been transformed into potentially
  marketable products
• while parts of the waste handling system itself
  has been transformed into commercial activities

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RoHS - a top-down policy

• almost in parallel to WEEE the EU has introduced
  a stringent regulation on hazardous substances in
  electronic products
• the background being their toxic impact both in
  use but especially when discharged as waste
• commonly used compounds banned lead, cadmium,
  hexavalent chromium, and two bromated flame
  retardant
• conventional command and control policy heavily
  influential on producers all over the world

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WEEE as EPR

• extended producer responsibility (EPR)
• technical analysis of electronic products
  demonstrate that the environmental impacts of
  waste stem from their design
• the challenge of addressing this problem is to
  enroll the companies responsible for the design
• located outside the EU which motivates the idea
  of giving producers the responsibility

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The concept of EPR

• concept inspired by theories originating from
  environmental economics
• a policy principle that integrates a life cycle
  perspective
• - deposit refund systems
• - take back schemes
• satisfies the polluter pays principle
• is expected to induce a mechanism of continuous
  improvements

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EPR in real life

• electronics is characterized by a distributed
  chain of production
• recycled materials besides precious metals
  have virtually no value compared to original
  product
• experiments demonstrate that difference in
  dismantling good and bad designs is small
• tracing and registering products is complicated

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Innovative impact of WEEE

• few indications of innovative activities induced
  by WEEE,
• while RoHS has demonstrated great impact
• EPR is based on a simplistic idea of the working
  of economic incentives and the producer being a
  rational (principal) agent
• the producer as Machiavellian prince (Latour)

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WEEE as transition policy

• can be seen at an attempt to induce radical
  innovation through transition by command
• multiple and conflicting interests in government
• acceptance of only the producers economic
  responsibilities
• specifications of design criteria were taken out
  of the directive
• leads to rather large changes in the structure
  and responsibilities of the waste handling system

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WEEE configuring governance

• the concept of inducing sustainable innovation is
  core in the understanding of governance
• the focus on innovation legitimizes WEEE
• the structuring of actors and the distribution of
  agency is based on a central government action
• little recognition of bottom up developed goals
  and visions
• the transformation of the electronic waste into
  tradable products produces unanticipated results

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Environmental governance

• the outcomes of environmental governance is
  shaped by
• - the materiality of products
• - the structure and distribution of supply
  chains
• - other policies (either conflicting or counter
  
• programs)
• - dominant concepts of environmental policy
• measures