To increase the rates of separate collection and recycling of small electronic devices - used mobile phones, tablets, laptops and their chargers - the European Commission issued recommendations to the Member States on Friday 6 October. These will be presented to the European Environment Ministers on Monday 16 October.
The aim of these recommendations is to help national authorities improve their performance in terms of collecting, then repairing, refurbishing, reusing and recovering these small electronic devices, and so speed up the implementation of Directive 2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by tackling the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU (currently 2% a year).
“There are more than 700 million old phones lying around in our drawers - that’s nearly two for every European citizen. Citizens often find it difficult to decide what to do with them. We can make it clearer and easier to get these products returned, repaired and recycled”, said the European Commissioner for the Environment, Janez Lenarčič.
In particular, the Commission recommends the following solutions:
- financial incentives such as discounts, vouchers, deposit systems or monetary rewards;
- raising awareness and improving access and visibility of collection points where citizens can return their small electronic appliances;
- supplying prepaid envelopes or labels to consumers for the return of their small electronic appliances;
- creating partnerships between re-use organisations and operators of take-back systems, and setting targets for re-use and preparation for re-use.
See the recommendations: https://aeur.eu/f/8yd (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)