The European Parliament has given the green light to new electronic waste (e-waste) collection targets including thresholds to be reached by Malta in 2016 and 2021.

As the island is considered to be among the laggards in this area, Malta was given a longer period to reach the new EU standards.

According to the approved text of the new EU directive, member states will now have to collect 45 tons of e-waste per 100 tons put on the market in the previous three years by 2016. By 2019, this must rise to 65 per cent and eventually to 85 per cent.

Malta and nine other member states, however, mostly the new ones, got preferential treatment with longer time-frames to reach the general EU targets.

Malta will only be expected to collect and recycle 40 per cent of waste by 2016 and will have until 2021, instead of 2019 to reach the final targets.

The EU already has legislation with regard to e-waste and Malta is very far from reaching these targets.

By the end of 2008, all EU member states had to collect and recycle at least four kilograms of electronic waste per inhabitant.

However, according to the latest information given by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Malta only managed to collect 0.05 kg of e-waste per inhabitant.

The new Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEE) Directive, approved by 630 MEPs, introduces new concepts to encourage more recycling of electronic waste.

These include the obligation of shops selling electronics to accept the return of small electronic goods, such as mobile phones, without the need for consumers to buy a new model and better processing to help in the recovery of more valuable raw materials and prevent them from ending up in landfills.

So far, Malta has no plants to recycle electronic waste and the material collected is normally sorted out locally and then exported for recycling.

Although Mepa is the national body responsible for the area, the EU directive places the responsibility for the collection of electronic waste on the private sector, particularly producers, manufacturers and distributors.

This makes the efforts of the authorities more complicated as the whole collection system is dependent on many players.

Last year, Mepa produced an e-waste plan identifying the roles and responsibilities of the various economic operators and outlining the infrastructure and financial measures deem­ed necessary to manage electronic waste.

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