EU ministers yesterday gave their backing to plans to make manufacturers pay to recycle electronic equipment.

Ministers met in Luxembourg and approved a draft law for the Waste, Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, today's FT reports.

The agreement will make vendors pay to collect and dispose of unwanted products, such as PCs and laptops. It aims to get countries to guarantee that at least 4kg of such waste will be collected per person every year.

Orgalime, Europe's representative group of electronic manufacturers, estimates that implementing the waste directive will cost the sector 7.5 billion euros annually.

The industry also believes there will be one-off costs totalling 55 billion euros related to setting up the recycling scheme before the directive comes into force. ®

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