ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Abstract
WEEE (waste from electrical and electronic equipment,
known also as e-waste) is the fastest growing category of
waste with 50 million tons generated worldwide each year and
it increases at a rate of 3-5% per year (Onyenekenwa et al.,
2011). In Europe e-waste issue has been tacked with a specific
directive named WEEE Directive (Directive 2002/96/EC).
This directive includes a policy principle known as Extended
Producer Responsibility (EPR). This research relates New
Institutional Economics framework to EPR. More specifically,
we investigate how the European regulation on e-waste (that
includes the EPR principle) changes the institutional settings
according to different options available. One of these options
regards the individual producer responsibility choice versus
the collective producer responsibility alternative.
This article also presents a case study on how the introduction
of WEEE Directive in Italy has changed the financial, physical
and informative responsibilities for producers and
municipalities. One important result is that the target of
collection of e-waste set at 4 kg per habitant per year by the
Directive, was reached in 2010. We conclude highlighting that
the recast of the European Directive in 2012 redefined the
collection targets of e-waste and Italy will face a big challenge
in order to reach those new goals.
