Obligation to collect the waste from electric and electronic equipment
Waste from electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE) must be taken back free of charge by producers and importers of electrical and electronic equipments (EEE) selling in or to Luxembourg.
This includes any company that, in its own name or under its own brand, performs the following:
- Manufactures electrical and electronic equipment, or designs them and have them manufactured, and markets them in Luxembourg, and is established in Luxembourg
- resells, in Luxembourg, equipment produced by other suppliers and is established in Luxembourg
(The reseller must not be considered as a producer when the producer's brand is shown on the equipment) - places on the Luxembourg market, for business purposes, EEE originating from third countries or from another Member State of the European Union and is established in Luxembourg
- sells EEE in Luxembourg by distance selling directly to households or to users other than households, and is established in another Member State or in a third country.
Foreign companies that provide EEE directly to users living in Luxembourg, but also distributors, final resellers and EEE installers, if they import EEE directly from abroad to place them on the Luxembourg market, are also subject to this collection obligation.
Financing the collection
The producers or importers must finance this collection, processing, reuse and non-polluting elimination of waste originating from equipments marketed in Luxembourg.
The company may
- take charge of this individually by registering with the Environment Agency and by putting in place a financial guarantee and their own system of collection,
- use the services of an accredited collection system (currently Ecotrel, the only accredited agency in Luxembourg).
In this latter case a recycling fee, to be paid by the final consumer, is paid to the Ecotrel asbl by the producers and importers. This is neither a tax nor a special duty, but a form of participation in the cost of recycling included in the contractual price of the products sold.
The company that opts for a collective management system by becoming a member of Ecotrel is automatically registered by Ecotrel with the Environment Agency.
Exemptions from payment of the recycling fee
The recycling fee may be returned to the intermediaries and final resellers in two cases:
- in the case of an intra-Community delivery or an export from a VAT point of view
Example: the intermediary or final seller has paid the recycling fee to their supplier at the time of the acquisition of the EEE, then sells them to physical or legal persons established in other countries.
- at the time of a sale with foreign VAT
Example: the intermediary or final reseller has paid the recycling fee to their supplier at the time of the acquisition of EEE then sells them, as part of a distance sale or a delivery with installation or assembly to a consumer located in another country. The foreign VAT is due by the intermediary or final reseller and the sale is not exempt from the Luxembourg VAT on account of the exportation.
Related procedures
The following procedure is described on the Guichet.lu website: