EWC code for WEEE and electrical waste
Electrical waste, or WEEE, is the EWC code people get wrong most, because it splits in two. Equipment with hazardous components is hazardous; everything else is not. Here is how to tell which side your item is on.
Electrical equipment containing hazardous components
WEEE splits into hazardous and non-hazardous
Waste electrical and electronic equipment is coded by whether it contains hazardous components, not by what it is. The two municipal codes are:
- 20 01 35* equipment containing hazardous components: anything with a screen, a circuit board, capacitors or batteries inside. Monitors, TVs, computers and most powered devices fall here. This is hazardous.
- 20 01 36 equipment with no hazardous parts, the simple items. Non-hazardous.
Hazardous WEEE needs a consignment note and a licensed receiving site. Non-hazardous WEEE needs only a transfer note. From a business, the same split runs through 16 02 13* (hazardous) and 16 02 14 (non-hazardous).
Fridges are their own code
Fridges, freezers and other cooling equipment that contain ozone-depleting CFCs are 20 01 23*, a separate hazardous code, because of the gases in the system. They must be handled by a site set up to degas them.
Rule of thumb: if it has a plug, a screen, a battery or a circuit board, treat it as hazardous (20 01 35*) unless you can show it has no hazardous parts. WEEE also has its own producer and treatment rules on top of the EWC code.