Two years after the “one for zero” decree came into force, most Italians don't know they can dispose of electrical and electronic waste in store, with no obligation to make a purchase.
It is a typical situation, when it comes to electronic waste. Despite the existence of well-drafted laws and available services and tools, public awareness and knowledge remain low, if not non-existent. This is what is happening with the "one for zero" decree, which allows small electrical appliances that no longer work to be dropped off free of charge at larger shops. According to recent research commissioned by Ecodom – the consortium responsible for managing WEEE in Italy – 73 per cent of Italians are unaware of this opportunity.
"The 'One for zero' decree offers all consumers a simple and free way to dispose of small WEEE items correctly and sustainably, avoiding any environmental harm," explains Maurizio Bernardi, president of the consortium. The survey, carried out between April and May 2018, involved almost 10,000 users and enabled them to correctly dispose of over a thousand electrical or electronic devices.
But what are the shortcomings of the decree? Why are so many people unaware of the scheme? Is there a failure on the part of operators? According to the research, the majority of citizens (more than 35 per cent) learned about the possibility of disposing of this type of waste from the electrical and electronic appliance retailers themselves, while more than a quarter had read about it online.
The decree establishes that it is shops larger than 400 square metres that must accept, with no purchase obligation, mobile phones or old CD players. According to survey respondents, the shops found to be most "receptive" were Mediaworld (in 31.1 per cent of cases), Euronics (18.4 per cent) and Unieuro (15.6 per cent). However, among the various shortcomings highlighted by the service, there are still reports of shop staff asking customers to make a new purchase in exchange, or even refusing to accept the item because they are still unaware of the obligation. In other cases, one-for-zero collection was not possible because the points of sale lacked the bins for WEEE collection.
According to the most recent data, Ecodom disposed of more than 100,000 tonnes of waste from electrical and electronic equipment in 2017. Of this, 61.7 per cent of the materials consisted of washing machines, tumble dryers, dishwashers, ovens, extractor hoods, electric heaters, boilers and microwaves (grouping R2), and 37.4 per cent of refrigerators, freezers and large domestic appliances for refrigeration, preservation and storage of food (grouping R1). From the collection, the consortium recovered 64,325,000 kg of iron, 2,024,000 kg of aluminium, 2,055,000 kg of copper and 9,778,000 kg of plastic – all secondary raw materials that will return to productive use.