Take-back & Recycling

As you are no doubt already aware, the enforcement of the EU WEEE Directive has accelerated the expansion of end-of-life product take-back regulations throughout the world. At present, many governments in various regions are trying to finalize their own take-back legislation. LG Electronics has been involved in the process of establishing such legislation and has supported the introduction of take-back systems that are economically viable.

While legal compliance is the most important consideration of the take-back policy, LG Electronics believes that simply complying with the (limited) existing take-back regulations is not enough.

While collective recycling schemes that were developed to respect the take-back regulations have achieved considerable environmental benefits at a reasonable cost, they do not provide direct eco-design incentives for individual manufacturers. Take-back systems based on the individual producers' responsibilities may provide such incentives. LG Electronics supports the introduction of Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) for future wastes and hopes that technically and economically feasible identification solutions will become available in the near future.

In addition, LG Electronics is considering to provide voluntary take-back for more product types and in more non-OECD member countries. For example, LG Electronics is positively considering and reviewing India’s draft bill for E-Waste Rules, which is similar to European Union (EU) directives on Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

LGE will keep investigating various ways to incorporate eco-design incentives into global take-back systems.