Questions concerning the act and its regulations can be addressed directly to the Ministry of the Environment or the Chief Environment Protection Inspector. Inquirers can also contact ElektroEko - we will do our best to help interpret the regulations.

No. Under the act, a collection point must accept household waste equipment free of charge.

Collection points are organized individually by municipalities or businesses involved in waste equipment collection/processing, and by retail outlets which are obligated to accept waste equipment from consumers on a “one for one” . As of October 1, 2006, municipalities are obligated to inform their citizens about the addresses of WEEE collection points, by posting this information on the municipality’s website and by communicating this information in other customary ways, for example by posting it on municipal information boards. ElektroEko, established in early 2006, is currently building its waste equipment collection system. The target is to establish a network of WEEE collection points with significant participation of ElektroEko, and in cooperation with retail stores, wholesalers and municipalities.

Municipalities have several options including:

a) Establishing local waste equipment collection points operated by the municipalities’ organizational units involved in collecting municipal waste, in cooperation with ElektroEko. In this scenario the municipality has full control over the execution of its tasks. At the same time the municipality reduces its own financial expenditure and can be sure about what happens with the old equipment, which under the provisions of the act must be transported to a processing facility. The entire process from pickup to recycling is financed by ElektroEko.

b) Opening an individual local WEEE collection point. The municipality finances the establishment and maintenance of a collection point and signs a contract with an operator who will pick up the equipment collected in the collection point.

c) Municipalities may also assign the obligation to establish a collection point to a local waste disposal company: in this scenario the cost of establishing and maintenance of the collection point will be transferred to the waste disposal company. This solution does not guarantee that the municipality will properly fulfill its statutory obligations. The municipality should therefore make sure that the collector delivers the collected equipment to the processing facility or a recycling organization and provides evidence of this to the appropriate authorities and the municipality.