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.
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.
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