The WEEE Forum is a not-for-profit association of WEEE producer responsibility organisations (or compliance schemes) in Europe. It was founded in April 2002 preceding the entry into force of Directive 2002/96/EC on WEEE. The aim of the WEEE Forum is to provide a platform for these organisations to foster ideas and share best practices while optimising environmental performance through proper management of electrical and electronic waste. The WEEE Forum members represent a network of 17,000 producers, and are responsible for the collection from over 77,000 municipalities and 20,000 retailers, and transporting WEEE for treatment at 700 treatment plants.
The mission of the WEEE Forum is to (i) optimise the operational efficiency of the member organisations’ WEEE management systems, while striving for excellence and continuous improvement of their environmental performance, (ii) provide a platform for co-operation at European level and the exchange of best practices, (iii) develop standards and technical specifications to fulfill producer responsibility on behalf of producers, (iv) assist its members in the development of their activities in a sustainable manner within the existing regulatory and legislative framework, (v) create a forum of support and knowledge for our members to make expert and constructive contributions to the general debate on the management of electrical and electronic waste. The WEEE Forum is the largest organisation of its kind in the world; its members, some of which have more than 15 years of experience, collected 1.88 million tonnes of WEEE in 2015.
The WEEE Forum can tap into operational knowledge of the WEEE market in terms of collection, logistics and processing. It is the owner of a database with facts and figures about the WEEE market and some of its members have collaborated with UNU on ‘WEEE flows’ studies: The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy.
The WEEE Forum member compliance schemes provide data and know-how.