The waste management in Europe and especially in Italy has become a major challenge for thelocal authorities who are in charge of the collection, of the recycling and of the disposal of waste.Most of the problems come from the lack of informations on the legislation defined by the EUand also on the policy instruments chosen by Member States to implement it. The aim of thispaper is to give a general overview of the European and the Italian legislation in the waste sectorproviding a detailed analysis of the European directives on waste and of the Italian regulationsthat were defined to implement the European legislation in this sector. The paper focuses especially on the waste coming from electronic and electric equipment whichamount has increased in the last years. Through the study of the European WEEE Directive andthe specific Italian laws in this sector, it is provided also an analysis of the data concerning thevolume of WEEE produced, recycled and disposed in landfills or through incineration in Italyand in all the other Member States of the European Union.