Brian

The legislation for takeback, reuse and disposal of electronic waste is in
force in Switzerland since July 1st. 1998. It obligates every institution
selling electronic equipment to take back used electronics and to be
responsible for their appropriate treatment. There is the possibility to
charge a customer for this service. Usually new equipment has the disposal
fee already included in the sales price. However, it is now usual, that one
may return used old electronic equipment for free when purchasing another
electronic equipment. Also, in the big shopping chains ( big in Swiss scale
) one is able to return any electronic equipment for free of the brand
that's sold there without buying something new and I even know of one group
taking back everything not regarding how old and what brand. Unfortunately
this service isn't used to the extend we hoped for when the new law was
introduced. Approx. 70% of all the electronic equipment purchased comes
back. We thought of introducing a depot system, equivalent to the one of
glass bottles to encourage people to bring back their old electronic stuff.
However, this was not practicable due to an enormous effort in
administration.

Best regard

Guenter

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