Legislation in Denmark

In Denmark, the WEEE Directive was implemented with an amendment to the Danish Environmental Protection Act and the WEEE Statutory Order with subsequent amendments. For the purpose of administration of the rules and handling of the national producer register the organization WEEE-System (now DPA-System) was established in pursuance of the Environmental Protection Act.

Three-step implementation

Implementation took place in several steps. First step – rules on marking – was implemented in August 2005.

31 December 2005 second step was implemented with a deadline of companies’ registration in the producer register of DPA-System. Third step was the implementation of the requirement that producers no later than 31 March 2007 were to report for the first time quantities put on the market, taken back, and treated in the previous calendar year.

In practice, the implementation of the producer responsibility scheme has led to a significant centralisation of the entire WEEE cycle in Denmark. Before this, 273 local authorities (98 authorities after a local government reform) were responsible for all stages of collection and treatment of WEEE from households in their territory.

Today, local authorities are only responsible for collection of WEEE from private users (households) and separation into five fractions. The task of making collection equipment available and treatment of WEEE at national level is now assumed by producers. For WEEE from professional users, producers and importers are now responsible for take-back and treatment compared to the former system where each professional user of the products was responsible for logistics and treatment.

In 2006 the first amendment to the WEEE Order was made. The amendment primarily affected provisions for fees paid by the producers to DPA-System for administrative handling of the producer responsibility scheme. 

A revised version of the WEEE Order has been entered in to force April 2010. The new order has not been translated yet.