E-waste collection gets a boost from smart bins
Environment — di Rudi Bressa
Where do you throw away old mobile phones, MP3 players and obsolete or broken computers? In Emilia-Romagna, this is how it's done.
E-waste collection gets a boost from smart bins
Where do you throw away old mobile phones, MP3 players and obsolete or broken computers? In Emilia-Romagna, this is how it's done.
Developed by the Ecolight consortium in collaboration with the Hera group, the campaign for the collection of small WEEE has achieved its first encouraging results: over 10 tonnes deposited by nearly 5,000 users. And this thanks to the placement of recycling points inside shopping areas.
"Since citizens find it difficult to take their small WEEE to the recycling centre, we wanted to bring the recycling centre to the areas where people are most concentrated, namely large shopping areas," said Giancarlo Dezio, director general of the Ecolight consortium. A smart and useful initiative, given that thousands of old radios, players and blenders are sitting forgotten in some corner of our homes — veritable mines of precious metals, if properly managed.
Image via Legambientearezzo.it
So from Rimini to Riccione, from Bologna to Forlì, there are 21 smart bins dedicated to small WEEE placed in a number of shopping areas. Smart because they are easy to use — you simply identify yourself with your health card — because they are capable of tracking the waste deposited right through to its recovery, and because they can alert technicians when the bin is full.
"The positive results achieved in these first months of use have led us to expand the area of operation. Soon more bins will be placed in Veneto, in the Padua area, and in Friuli in the Trieste area," Dezio stressed. "In addition, further placements are being assessed, again in Emilia-Romagna, thanks to the partnership established with the Hera Group."
An example of the smart bins.
One for nothing. It is worth noting that since last April, mobile phones, smartphones, razors and hairdryers can be dropped off directly at retail outlets without having to purchase a product in the same category. This is also highlighted by Aires (Associazione italiana retailer elettrodomestici specializzati), the body that brings together Italy's best-known companies and groups: "shops of over 400 sq m are now required to take back small household appliances even without a new purchase, provided they are smaller than 25 cm. The estimated economic value (data from the Remedia Consortium) is around 140 million euros. A veritable "little treasure", which should spur us to empty our drawers.