More and more electrical appliances are ending up in landfills around the world, and with them valuable raw materials – a problem for people, the environment and the climate. Today we answer the 4 important questions on the subject of e-waste and e-waste recycling.
What is e-waste?
E–waste means electronic products nearing the end of their ‘useful life’. It includes any electrical and electronic equipment that’s been discarded. Computers, televisions, VCRs, stereos, copiers, and fax machines are common electronic products.
The European Commission has divided e-waste into the following six categories: Temperature exchange equipment, screens & monitors, lamps, large equipment, small equipment, small IT and telecommunication equiptment.
What contains e-waste?
Basically, it can be anticipated that e-waste contains valuable and rare ressources. Pollutants such as mercury, lead or cadium are problematic. Pollutants and greenhouse gases from scarp pollute the environment and the climate. Therefore, proper recycling and disposal of all components of waste electrical equipment is enormously important.
How do I dispose of e-waste?
- Give your e-waste to a public recycling center
- Small devices? Take it to a dealer with a take-back obligation
- Large appliances? Use the exchange service of your dealer
- Send it back to a retailer
- For business: Make a pickup request to CIRECON
CIRIS was developed to fill the gap within the recycling industry: Automation of processes, collection of data within the whole process, reporting to create more transparency and the flexibility of the system to be used by several parties within the circular economy loop.
Why shouldn’t old electrical appliances simply be thrown away with the household waste?
The big problem here is that small electrical appliances (e.g. irons, smartphones, tablets, fitness watches, coffee machines,…) can easily and inconspicuously thrown away in the residual waste garbage can.
In relation to their total weight, these small electrical appliances contain considerably more valuable raw materials than large appliances (washing machines,…) and should therefore be increasingly collected and recycled.