The WEEELABEX organisation is a stand-alone accredited legal entity, headquartered in Prague, that will manage training of auditors, monitor auditing activities and approve (list) ‘WEEELABEX operators’. It is an international non-profit organisation – or, under Czech law, ‘association of legal entities with international membership’ – of which the WEEELABEX systems (WEEE producer compliance schemes) are the members. Auditing activities result in the attestation that processes (of suppliers) are conformant with the WEEELABEX standards or equivalent requirements.

The treatment operators who have undergone successful WEEELABEX CV (Conformity Verification) for the process or processes performed at their facility are referred to as ‘WEEELABEX operators. Only those processes (and WEEELABEX operators), which have been confirmed as compliant to the CV procedures, will be acknowledged and listed on the WEEELABEX website. WEEELABEX CV is conducted by Certified auditors who have successfully undergone WEEELABEX training, who provide proof of continued development notably through attendance at subsequent training sessions, and who use WEEELABEX audit processes and reporting tools and provide fully documented and objective evidence that the audited processes can conform to all WEEELABEX requirements.

WEEELABEX is the acronym (‘WEEE LABel of EXcellence’) of a certification non-profit organisation run by stakeholders from the producers’ community and processing industry. Producers and recyclers are represented in both working groups and the project’s steering group. The organisation (2009-2012) was co-financed by the European Community under the LIFE program (LIFE07 ENV/B/000041). It aims to design, on one hand, a set of European standards with respect to the collection, sorting, storage, transportation, preparation for re-use, treatment, processing and disposal of all kinds of WEEE, and, on the other hand, a harmonized set of rules and procedures that will provide for conformity verification.

The WEEELABEX Organisation reached a very important milestone by obtaining a “certificate of accreditation”. The accreditation was confirmed by the Czech Accreditation Institute (CAI), a member of the International Accreditation Forum (IAF). The WEEELABEX scheme accreditation is applicable throughout Europe and even worldwide. The scope of accreditation covers the:

– certification of WEEELABEX auditors (ISO 17024) and

– certification of the WEEE treatment operators (ISO 17065).

The accreditation means that the entire certification process is fully compliant with the reputable international standards (ISO 17024 and ISO 17065) ensuring the high quality and recognition of the certificates issued by the WEEELABEX Organisation.

The certificate issued by the accredited WEEELABEX Organisation is recognized and accepted by EPEAT.

A harmonized set of standards will create economies of scale and therefore allow operators in the WEEE processing industry to reduce costs, which will benefit producers and consumers. But it will also allow producers to position themselves as parties that take corporate responsibility seriously.

The project aspires to design, on the one hand, a set of European standards (or ‘normative requirements’) with respect to the collection, sorting, storage, transportation, preparation for re-use, treatment, processing and disposal of all kinds of WEEE, and, on the other hand, a harmonized set of rules and procedures that will provide for conformity verification.

Operators that fall within the scope of the project are: collection sites, logistics sites, transporters, and facilities involved in dismantling, de-pollution, and preparation for re-use, disposal and recycling.

– The standards concern all steps in the chain, from collection to disposal.

– Operators involved in WEEE operations will be audited by WEEELABEX auditors, trained in accordance with the standards. – Facilities and sites that meet the requirements will be identifiable. No label or visual identifier will be awarded to companies or legal entities as such.

– Operators will have to be in a position to assess conformity of their activities with the standards and to demonstrate that they have contracted with WEEELABEX (or WEEELABEX-equivalent) partners. 6

– WEEELABEX services can be considered of an open nature in the sense that any organisation that accepts the obligations of WEEELABEX can join the scheme.

– The standards are expected to be, at least, acknowledged by the administrative bodies in Europe in charge of implementation and enforcement of the provisions in the Directive transposed in national (and sub-national) regulation. The EU member states are called on to integrate them into their policy.

– It is not the WEEELABEX’ ambition to produce labels for products, but to recycle the products in the environmental and economical-friendly way.

WEEELABEX aspires to design, on the one hand, a set of European standards (or ‘normative requirements’) with respect to the collection, sorting, storage, transportation, preparation for re-use, treatment, processing and disposal of all kinds of WEEE, and, on the other hand, a harmonized set of rules and procedures that will provide for conformity verification.

Operators that fall within the scope of the project are: collection sites, logistics sites, transporters, and facilities involved in dismantling, de-pollution, and preparation for re-use, disposal and recycling.

– The standards concern all steps in the chain, from collection to disposal.

– Operators involved in WEEE operations will be audited by WEEELABEX auditors, trained in accordance with the standards. – Facilities and sites that meet the requirements will be identifiable. No label or visual identifier will be awarded to companies or legal entities as such.

– Operators will have to be in a position to assess conformity of their activities with the standards and to demonstrate that they have contracted with WEEELABEX (or WEEELABEX-equivalent) partners. 6

– The project can be considered of an open nature in the sense that any organisation that accepts the obligations of WEEELABEX can join the scheme.

– The standards are expected to be, at least, acknowledged by the administrative bodies in Europe in charge of implementation and enforcement of the provisions in the Directive transposed in national (and sub-national) regulation. The EU member states are called on to integrate them into their policy.

– It is not the project’s ambition to produce labels for products.

For the first time, a coherent, continental and comprehensive set of technical requirements with respect to WEEE operations is laid down. They are referred to as ‘WEEELABEX standards’ or normative documents.

– The standards are normative (as opposed to descriptive) requirements and concern all steps in the chain, including collection and preparation for re-use.

– The standards cover all 10 WEEE categories.

– The requirements related to collection, logistics and treatment activities are supposed to be implemented by all the WEEE systems of the WEEE Forum and those who have contracted to do so. They are designed to encourage the WEEE systems’ partners to play their important role in the WEEE stream. – The requirements laid down in the standard are embedded in legislative requirements of Directive 2002/96/EC and its transposing legislation.

In August 2009, the WEEE Forum signed a contract of co-operation with CENELEC, one of the three official EU standards bodies. In time, (some of) the requirements of the WEEELABEX normative documents will likely be translated into formal CENELEC EN standards.

To apply for the WEEELABEX Certification you should:

• Choose the Lead Auditor from our web (you can email few of them and discuss which streams you should audit and later decide who you want to choose as the Lead auditor).

Link: https://weeelabexweb.dev.crmserver.cz/market-information/weeelabex-auditors/

• Fill out the Declaration of Intent (DoI) which you can find on our web: https://weeelabex.org/form/
• After receiving the DoI, we issue the Application fee 550€. After the audit, we issue the Registration fee 550€ for each stream which will be listed on our web.

The DoI will be reviewed by the WEEELABEX Office and we will inform you if the requirements are met.

Also, there is a possibility to attend the Webinar for the General Training for Treatment Operators which can be scheduled upon your time possibilities, It starts from 9:00-17:30 and via Go to Meeting application (Webinar fee 350€).

The information about the training is available in the section Certification – Workshop for operators: https://weeelabex.org/workshop-webinar-for-operators/

The Webinar for the General Training for Treatment Operators which can be scheduled upon your time possibilities, It starts from 9:00-17:30 and via Go to Meeting application (Webinar fee 350€).

The list of certified auditors can be found in the section Market Information – WEEELABEX Auditors:  https://weeelabex.org/market-information/weeelabex-auditors/

Application and registration fee is used to cover administrative cost of WEEELABEX organisation.

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The list of certified operators can be found in the section Market Information – WEEELABEX Operators https://weeelabex.org/market-information/certified-operators/

For the treatment facilities you can check the address of facility at the list of certified operators.

The list of certified auditors can be found in section Certification – Auditors and List of Certified Weeelabex Auditors

The whole process can be found at “Certification – Auditors” -> “Apply” -> “Application & Approval procedure“

You can find the costs of all the steps regarding the certification process of auditors in price list for the current year here: https://www.weeelabex.org/weeelabex-auditors/documents/

The price of the 5-day Auditor Qualification workshop is 1750 EUR + VAT 21%  (incl. distance test, distance test evaluation, workshop itself, refreshment + lunch during the workshop, final test, final test evaluation, excl. accommodation, travel expenses)

The Auditor Registration Fee is 385 EUR per year.

To improve their qualification auditors offered to participate in the workshops such as:

• Experience Qualification Workshop (mandatory workshop every year)
• Cooling and Freezing Specialist workshop
• Lamp Specialist workshop
• Re-use workshop
• Collection and Logistics workshop