European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as amended by European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/108/EC of 8 December 2003 was transposed into Irish Law on 5 July 2005 by the Waste Management (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Regulations 2005 (S.I. No. 340 of 2005).
The WEEE take back scheme, which can into effect on 13 August 2005, has been a remarkable success. 37,812 tonnes of household WEEE was collected during 2007, a 20% increase over the 2006 collection rate. This represents approximately 6.7 million electrical and electronic products or 8.7kg per inhabitant. This is over double the 4 Kgs target the WEEE Directive requires Ireland to achieve by the end of 2008 and indicates widespread public support for the scheme.
In April 2008, the European Commission issued a letter of formal notice concerning some aspects of Ireland's transposition of the Directive. A detailed response has been issued to the Commission.