"The environmental benefits of reuse are very limited according to Rechberger (2006). He examined two extreme scenarios: one with no reuse of products and another with reuse of all products giving between 50% and 100% product life extension. The study found that even intensive product reuse of EEE reduces total resource consumption (materials and energy) of a highly developed economy by less than 1%. Given that practical experiences have shown that reuse possibilities are very low (i.e. much lower than 100%), the argument for a separate target for reuse of whole appliances is weak. This is further substantiated by Rose and Stevels (2001) which showed that the environmental benefits are very low compared to materials recycling."

Meta-Actor: Government

Source Document: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/pdf/final_rep_unu.pdf

Date: August 5, 2007