WEEE is the waste of electrical
and electronic equipment, i.e. all waste deriving from devices which depend on
electric currents or electromagnetic fields for their operation.
WEEE is classified into two broad categories, according to their
origin:
Domestic WEEE: they are those coming from households and WEEE of
commercial origin , industrial, institutional of another type, similar in
nature and quantity to those originating from households.
Professional
WEEE: they are the WEEE different from those coming from the households
The WEEE family contains all the
waste deriving from small and large household appliances, computers, electrical
and electronic devices, cell phones, fluorescent lamps, etc., once they have
reached the end of their life cycle E-waste recycling.
The WEEE are divided according to the Legislative 10 categories:
1. Large
appliances
2. Small
appliances
3. IT
and telecommunication equipment
4. Consumer
equipment and photovoltaic panels
5. Lighting
equipment
6. Electrical
and electronic tools (except large fixed industrial tools)
7. Toys
and equipment for leisure and sport
8. Medical
devices (except for all implanted and infected products
9. Monitoring
and control tools
10. Vending
machines
The regulation identifies 5 groups of WEEE based on the technologies
necessary for their correct treatment:
R1 - Large cold white - large appliances for refrigeration:
refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners
R2 - Large non-cold white - large appliances such as washing
machines, dishwashers.
R3 - TV cathode ray tube monitor
R4 - Consumer electronics, telecommunications, information
technology, small appliances, power tools, toys, lighting equipment, medical
devices.
R5 - Discharge light sources: fluorescent lamps and compact light
sources.
Each type of WEEE is recycled and
disposed of according to a specific procedure.
WEEE represents at the same time
a source of pollution and a resource of useful and recoverable materials for
subsequent uses.
In fact, different categories of
WEEE contain materials that are highly harmful to the environment and human
health and for this reason they must be managed following precise rules and in
highly specialized plants.
From WEEE it is possible to
recover various types of plastics, ferrous and non-ferrous metals (aluminum,
copper, etc.), precious metals, glass, electronic parts which, properly
treated, can give life to other objects and therefore fall within the economic
cycle.
In the past, the economic aspect
prevailed over the environmental one and often the recovery and disposal cycle
was carried out without the most basic safety measures.
The producers of electrical or
electronic equipment are therefore now obliged to join one of the existing
collective systems, which are entrusted with the task of recovering all the
WEEE collected from the municipal ecological stands and from the distribution.
WEEE regulations
The purposes of the Legislative
Decree are manifold:
1. Prevent
the production of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
2. Reduce
the volume of waste to be disposed of, promoting recycling and reuse.
3. Ensure
that E-waste management is done in an
environmentally sound way and raise awareness among those involved.
4. Encourage
the development of equipment that facilitates the disposal and recovery of WEEE
through the reduction of the use of dangerous substances.
With reference to this latter
obligation, the legislator has expressly established that manufacturers
organize and manage the disposal operations of their own end-of-life equipment
waste. The financing of these operations takes place through the application of
an eco-contribution to the sale price. The amount of this eco-contribution is
defined in relation to the cost of the collection, recycling and disposal
operations.
Local authorities and in
particular the Municipalities have precise WEEE skills. By achieving a high
level of suitable separate collection to achieve the objectives indicated
subject the collected WEEE to adequate treatment, the following measures and
actions must be activated:
a) Municipalities must ensure the
functionality and adequacy, due to the density of the population, of the
separate collection systems of WEEE coming from households and accessibility to
the related collection centers, in order to allow the final owners,
distributors, installers and managers of WEEE technical assistance centers to
freely deliver WEEE produced in their territory or held at grouping places
organized by distributors in their territory. The transfer of waste produced in
other Municipalities is allowed only upon signing of a special agreement with
the Municipality of destination. This agreement is mandatory for Municipalities
that have not set up a collection center suitable for receiving WEEE.
The separate collection must
primarily concern the equipment for the exchange of temperature containing
substances that deplete the ozone layer and fluorinated greenhouse gases,
fluorescent lamps containing mercury, photovoltaic panels and small equipment.
Priority criteria in the management of WEEE
The management of the WEEE must
privilege the reuse and preparation operations for the reuse of the WEEE, their
components, subsets and consumables in implementation of the principles of
precaution and prevention, and in order to allow an efficient use of resources.
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Preparation for reuse and reuse
The dedicated section contains
all the information to obtain authorization for the construction and management
of a preparation center for re-use, more simply defined as "Repair and
re-use center", which has the function of transforming, through
appropriate operations, the WEEE in functional equipment suitable for
performing the same function as the original equipment.
PHASES of correct recycling of WEEE
There are four stages to carry
out for the correct recycling of WEEE : separate collection, safety, treatment
and recovery.
Separate collection
The correct recycling process
begins in the phase of separate collection of technological waste by the end
user (consumer, company or organization).
Citizens can give their WEEE free
of charge using the services made available by the Municipalities or
environmental service companies (Collection centers, mobile stations, home
collection) or give the WEEE free of charge to the store, taking advantage of
the 1 vs. 0 service for small EEE (max side 25 cm long), or when purchasing an
equivalent product (1 on 1).
Domestic WEEE collected at the
municipal collection centers where other types of waste from separate
collection (paper and cardboard, plastic, glass, etc.) are also collected, are
transported to special plants for subsequent treatment.
As for Professional WEEE, these
are collected directly from companies, institutions and institutions to be
transported to the plants too.
Safety
WEEE can contain dangerous
substances (e.g. ozone depleting substances in refrigerators), for this reason
special transports and legally required infrastructures are required, capable
of handling, receiving and storing WEEE in an optimal way , avoiding damage to
the equipment and the dispersion of dangerous substances. Before the actual
treatment, WEEE are subjected to the separation phase, with the aim of removing
dangerous components and materials (such as capacitors containing PCBs,
ozone-depleting gases, components containing mercury, batteries) and to
facilitate the recycling of materials.
Treatment and Recovery
The treatment activities for the
recycling, recovery and enhancement of materials are carried out thanks to real
"production lines" which instead of assembling or transforming raw
materials and components into finished products follow the reverse process:
from the product to the end life raw materials are obtained again. These can
then be reused in new production cycles.
