ECOSWEEE
Aktual project

Life Ecosweee

Project title: Life Ecosweee (LIFE 20-PLP-BE-LIFE-ECOSWEEE)

Project slogan: Enhancing collection of small W/EEE and batteries

Duration: 1.4.2023 - 31.1.2025

Coordinator: WEEE forum

Project partners: Appliances Recycling S.A. ECYCLE (Greek), ECOTIC (Romania), Electrão – Associação de Gestão de Resíduos ELECTRÃO (Portugal), Erion compliance organization scarl ECO (Italy), Ramboll Deutschland GmbH - Ramboll (Dennmark), Stichting Organisatie Producentenverantwoordelijkheid E-waste Nederland OPEN (Netherlands), Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação SPI (Portugal), GRS Batterien (Germany), United Nations Institute for Training and Research UNITAR (Switzerland), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Ltd WEEE Ireland (Ireland), ZEOS, d.o.o. (Slovenia)

Purpose:

The growing mountain of e-waste is an issue of increasing concern. WEEE and batteries containing hazardous substances give rise to serious environmental pollution and health concerns if not sustainably managed. Furthermore, every product that is not collected for reuse or de-polluted and recycled represents a wasted opportunity in terms of loss of natural resources and energy, a decreasing supply of (critical and/or valuable) materials to feed into manufacturing, which in turn puts the sector’s resilience, the EU economy’s autonomy and jobs in jeopardy. WEEE and battery legislation have laid down ambitious collection and recovery targets. Yet, after twenty years of WEEE rules Member States are falling short of reaching the EU minimum collection rate of 65%. The EU is committed to improving the small WEEE collection rate in the frameworks of the European Green Deal.

With the aim of practically testing several methods and incentives to increase the collection rate of small WEEE and portable batteries the ECOSWEEE project proposes to design and implement 10 new pilots in 8 Member States to test the practicability, achievability, usefulness, and viability of different collection strategies and incentives. Strategies to be tested include deposit return, buy back, and other reward schemes, e.g. donation, postal services, other collection routes, involvement of online retail, financial aspects, and improvement of collection network. Another 12 ongoing or planned initiatives carried out by producer responsibility organisations (PROs) will also provide direct input to the project. Results of the pilot implementation will be analysed on the basis of pre-established criteria and indicators to measure the impacts and effectiveness (success) of the actions implemented, define potential areas of improvement and provide recommendations to policymakers at the member state and EU levels.

Ecosweee_3

Goals:

Prepare report and summary booklet on good practices, drivers and obstacles in the collection of small UEEE, WEEE and portable batteries, as well as report on consumer consultation identifying stakeholders’ needs and habits in returning small U/WEEE and batteries

Test the feasibility and effectiveness of incentives to support the take back obligation and improve the collection rate of small electronics (WEEE, UEEE) and portable batteries in ECOSWEEE pilots for the compilation of successful take-back schemes.

Develop impact assessment report highlighting the most effective strategies to increase the collection rate of small electronics and portable batteries and the recovery of secondary materials including CRM.  

Prepare report and organise briefings presenting findings and policy recommendations that will input the evaluation of WEEE legislation and the proposed Batteries Regulation and other policies in Europe. 

Develop report including a set of good practices for the exploitation, upscale, and sustainability of the project’s results at Member State and EU level and implement Replicability & Transferability workshop. 

Reach at least 150 relevant practitioners at EU level in view of collecting various perspectives through the establishment of a Stakeholder Platform and disseminate project findings.

The role of ZEOS:

  •  conducting a telephone survey

  • preparation and implementation of pilot collection and incentives for collection in Slovenia

  • upgrading our website and social networks with the help of advertising

 Results:

Pending.

Link to project page

Project page