Mon intervention:

An EU legislation restricting the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and promoting the collection and recycling of such equipment exists since February 2003. This now ancient legislation provided for the creation of collection schemes where consumers return their used e-waste free of charge. The objective of these schemes was to increase the recycling and/or re-use of such products. It also required heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium.

According to a report released by UNEP’s Resource Panel in the spring of this year, despite such rules on recycling and collection, recycling rates of metals are in many cases “far lower than their potential for reuse”. Less than one-third of the 60 metals studied in the report have an end-of-life recycling rate above 50% while 34 elements are below 1% recycling.

The trouble is that the recycling shortfall also concerns very valuable high-tech metals, which are much in demand today. It applies to rare earths, but also for lithium needed for car batteries, gallium used for computers and digital cameras and indium used for computer screens. The weak performance is particularly frustrating because these metals are inherently recyclable. And while more than half of the iron and steel, as well as platinum, gold, silver and other precious metals, are recycled in industrial applications, only a small fraction of them is recycled in electronic goods.

Noticing these quite bad performances, the European Commission proposed, in December 2008 (two thousand and eight), to revise the directives on electrical and electronic equipment in order to tackle the fast increasing waste stream of such products. The aim was to increase the amount of e-waste that was appropriately treated and to reduce the volume that goes to disposal. The proposals also aimed to reduce administrative burdens and ensure coherency with newer policies and legislation covering, for example, chemicals and the new legislative framework for the marketing of products in the European Union.

The Commission proposed to set mandatory collection targets equal to 65% (sixty five percents) of the average weight of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market over the two previous years in each Member State. The recycling and recovery targets of such equipment would have covered the re-use of whole appliances and weight-base targets would have increased by 5% (five percents).

Member States with a high consumption of electrical and electronic equipment would have had more ambitious collection targets under the new directive, while others with lower consumption levels would have had targets that would have been appropriately adapted. However, it has been three years since the Commission proposed the actualization and the reinforcement of the European legislation in those matters. On the European Commission’s invitation, the Committee of the Regions has specified its position in its Opinion: “Restriction on the use of hazardous substances in EEE and the treatment of WEEE”.

This opinion expresses several major concerns of the Regional and local authorities about these issues. First, the Committee of the Regions requests that the Directive requires the Member States to oblige, and not only encourage, the producers to design products which may be easily repaired, dismantled, reused or recovered. The CoR also calls for the collection rate to be applied to each product category individually and recommends to calculate the collection target against the average life cycle of the EEE. It specifies that Member States should safeguard against the introduction of small WEEE into the unsorted waste stream. Moreover, the CoR requests an obligation for producers to finance the costs of WEEE collection and collection facilities. It plaids for the extension of producer responsibility to costs of separate collection from households should be mandatory to ensure greater harmonisation of financial responsibility and create a level playing field in the EU.

The CoR asks too for the introduction of a separate 5% re-use target, in accordance with the waste hierarchy, in order to help remove the current deterrents to reusing recovered products, and ensure the quality reuse of appliances. And finally, the CoR asks that more attention be paid to the role of environmental education programmes including awareness-raising campaigns. More specifically, local and regional authorities should be supported in the preparation and implementation of such action which can be pivotal in helping to shape consumer behaviour.

This opinion contains a specific chapter dedicated to importance of the local and regional dimension. In there, the CoR stresses that in most Member States, it is local and regional authorities that are responsible for implementing EU waste management policy. They plan, grant permits for and manage waste treatment and collection systems and should consequently play a key role in the process of developing new approaches and proposals for the waste sector. The CoR draws also attention to the delays in the transposition of the WEEE Directive, as a result of which local and regional authorities are failing to receive clear and timely guidance on how to implement the regulations correctly.

It finally demands that the new WEEE Directive ensures that compliance schemes provide appropriate and continued compensation to the relevant Local or Regional Authorities for any financial or administrative burdens that will be required in order to implement the Directive.

Those three points expresses in fact the huge challenges that the European regional and local authorities meet on that field. - The need of a coherent and fully implemented waste management strategy, including management plans at different levels. - The setup of a separate collection and sorting systems for many different waste streams. - The installation of adequate treatment and disposal facilities. - An effective horizontal co-operation between local authorities (municipalities) and a vertical cooperation between different levels of authorities. - The funding for the establishing or upgrading of expensive sustainable waste management infrastructure. - The creation of complete and available data basis and of an extensive monitoring. - The enforcement of the control and of the administrative capacity at the regional and local level. Lack of finances, information, and technical expertise should be overcome. - And finally, the transparency and public participation should be enhanced.

In concrete terms, the regions and localities need several things.

1) An integrated Waste management strategy. European plans should set strategic goals and targets, and the regional and local plans should be more detailed and practical.

2) Co-operation. Co-operation across levels of governance and among different regions is important to a successful waste management program.

3) Financing. Setting up infrastructure is an expensive process, and sources of financing must be found. An economically viable financing system, employing incentives and/or other mechanisms, must be installed to meet the set requirements.

4) Public Participation. The public needs to contribute to meet the targets of the future directive, lot more than in the past. To achieve this, the public needs to be well informed and educated to understand how and why they should prevent e-waste, promote reuse of electronic and electric devices and properly recycle them. A key to the success of proper waste management is, therefore, the information, consultation, and participation of all stakeholders, including industry, trade, and particularly households. Educational campaigns at the local level are needed to generate public awareness, interest, and support.

5) Lack of capacities. Regional authorities, mainly responsible for planning, enforcement and control, often are not able to fulfill their tasks adequately because of a lack of administrative and/or financial capacity.

Among these needs, we can highlight the access to relevant material on EU requirements detailing the requirements of EU Directive, the role of local authorities, the process of implementation and the implementation mechanisms as the best implementation practices from other local authorities; Information, knowledge, and expertise should be disseminated to regional and local authorities, maybe via an informative and/or cooperative platform (the CoR could contribute to the setup up of such an infrastructure).

Those are the challenges and requirements expressed by the Regions and Municipalities to adoption of the expected Directive.

Finally, on 19 July 2011 (nineteen July two thousand and eleven), the Council adopted a Common Position on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). It does not mention any of these previous preoccupations neither any of the specific challenges and needs of the local and regional actors. If the general approach and the ambitious objectives must be appreciated, the lack of specific mention of the local and regional role in the e-waste management remains a concern.




The Council’s Common position is now subject to the approval of the European Parliament as well as the European Commission published a communication containing several recommendations about the future directive. Neither institution takes account of those local and regional preoccupations. For this reason, it is crucial that in the case of the nonspecific inclusion of these issues in the future global Directive, the regional and local authorities (and beside them, the Committee of the Regions), can be taken into account.




These ones must be fully associated to the process of creation and implementation of the future e-waste management strategy. This multi-level governance will be the key of the success of the future directive and a corner stone of its realization. This integrated approach of the environmental challenges has been yet adopted at a larger scale as it has been used during the preliminary work of the coming Rio+20 summit. We hope that this innovative path will gain the European sphere soon.





NEWSLETTER




1. INTRODUCTION




The ECOVITRUM project has celebrated its second year with an International Seminar, where the main results obtained so far were presented. The timing was excellent, as the European institutions are discussing the new Directive on waste of electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). That is why the ECOVITRUM consortium invited the main stakeholders involved in the management of this type of waste, in order to learn about the last updates on the legislative proposal and its current situation, as well as the different positions and opinion about the Directive implementation.




During the second part of the seminar, the ECOVITRUM project was introduced as a successful experience on WEEE management and recovery. Finally, the seminar provided the attendees with some tips regarding the next LIFE+ call, a European Commission instrument for funding new projects that give response to environmental problems in the EU.




This Newsletter provides a summary of the international seminar of the ECOVITRUM project, as well as a section with the latest results of the project obtained by its partners.




2. INTERMEDIATE CONFERENCE OF ECOVITRUM




The International conference on “The role of the LRAs in managing the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment within the EU framework - A case study: the ECOVITRUM project or how WEEEs can be converted into raw material” took place on 28th October at the Committee of the Regions.




Around fifty people attended the event, including local and regional public agents, government bodies, companies involved in the waste management sector and companies from the construction sector, as the main destination market for the outcome of the recovery process of ECOVITRUM WEEE.




Opening session:




A member of the ENVE Committee at the Committee of the Regions, Mr. Michel Lebrun, and the Deputy of Environment at the Valencian Provincial County, Mr. Salvador Enguix, opened the conference.




During his speech, Mr. Lebrun welcomed the attendees to the Committee of the Regions. As the CoR rapporteur for the Europe 2020 Strategy, he highlighted the importance of looking for an equilibrium between the citizens welfare and the responsible use of the natural resources. Since waste management is a matter for the regions, the CoR Member indicated that they could take benefit of this responsibility, by creating jobs, saving energy and decreasing the exploitation of resources.




INTRODUCTION




Next, the Deputy for Environment, Mr. Enguix, explained the role of the provincial council to improve the municipal management of urban waste, through the financing and implementation of 92 municipality collection points. These are facilities of public and free-of-charge use for the selective management of waste generated by the municipalities in the Valencian province.




Mr. Enguix emphasised that municipal waste have evolved in recent years both in composition and in quantity, as well as in its nature. In particular, obsolete televisions and screens, which due to their large size and the difficulty of recovering their components, are generating an environmental challenge to local authorities.




Thus, he underlined that thanks to this project more than 20,000 units which were out of use had been treated, and instead of being left in rubbish dumps they have been transformed into high-quality raw materials, reducing environmental impact, and offering an optimal solution to a common problem throughout the European Union.




The provincial council expects that initiatives like this one, carried out by local authorities, will provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge, sustainable development of our territory, according to the motto "think globally, act locally".




Session 1.- Present and future of the European legislation on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.




Mr. Richard Tuffs, director of the European Regions for Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN), moderated the seminar. After highlighting the importance of this event, he introduced the three speakers on this session, who represented, on the one hand, the responsible body for the new legislative initiative; on the other hand, most of the integrated management systems at European WEEE; and finally, the local and regional authorities, responsible for implementing the initiative.




First, he gave the floor to Mr. Thorsten Brunzema, of DG Environment at the European Commission, who stressed the need to address current and future WEEE
increment, due to the content of heavy metals and the hazardous substances that are generated in their incineration. He showed how the current system of
waste management had led to a broad scope of management systems throughout EU countries, comparing collection rates, which do not always achieve the requirement of 4 kg.




Mr. Lebrun showed his commitment to reach the “zero-waste society”, welcoming the ECOVITRUM project which shows a path to achieve this goal. To this purpose, he suggested some actions to be taken into account in order to promote recycling beyond EU objectives, ensuring compliance with waste management standards, both inside and outside the EU; promoting the competitiveness of European recycling enterprises through all the value chain; giving incentives to recycled products or products which save raw materials, by means of financial benefits or with other instruments for new markets; stimulating innovation;
optimising the use of quality criteria for recycled materials; etc.




The new directive aims to correct the deficiencies found, reducing rubbish dumps, preventing the release of hazardous substances and recovering valuable resources through recycling techniques. Its objectives include reducing the environmental impact, increasing law compliance and reducing administrative costs.
To that purpose, collection targets are changed for each country; it will fight against deviations of WEEE which are not properly treated; it will include reuse targets; and it will harmonize procedures.




The representative of the Commission summarised this way the proposal which is currently being debated and voted at the European Parliament and Council.
Next, Mr. Lebrun focused on the observations and demands that the CoR had on the new directive, incorporating the concerns of regional authorities and asking for more responsibility from producers of electrical and electronic equipment for easy repairing, dismantling, reusing and recovering.
To avoid imbalances between countries, the CoR proposes collection rates to be calculated on an single category basis and taking into account the product life cycle; moreover, it would encourage a reuse rate of 5%. Besides, in order to achieve recycling objectives, Mr. Lebrun emphasized the importance of the awareness campaigns. On the other hand, he said that the authorities responsible for waste management have struggled to understand the guidelines in order to implement legislation correctly, and he therefore requested transparency, simplification and compensations for a correct implementation of the Directive. Finally, he claimed for an integrated waste management strategy for the regions, as well as cooperation among the different governance levels, funds for infrastructure, and public participation to meet the objectives.




In this first panel, Mr. Pascal Leroy took the floor as Secretary General of the WEEE Forum, an organisation which brings together most of the WEEE integrated management systems.




In his speech, Mr. Leroy explained that the WEEE Forum is composed of 39 WEEE management systems, which recover about 2 million tons per year and represent the majority of European WEEE. The objective is to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of its members and to seek environmental improvement. To achieve its objectives, he considered essential to support awareness campaigns, as there are still two thirds of WEEE which are not
recovered in the EU.




Regarding the new Directive, the WEEE Forum believes that all parties must abide by the same obligations, and so the integrated waste management systems must commit themselves to recycle 100% of the WEEE they receive, while local authorities should be responsible for managing household collection.
Finally, sr. Leroy emphasized the need to homogenize and standardize processes and requirements at European level.




Session 2- Funding schemes for environmental initiatives: LIFE Programme




Taking into consideration that one of the biggest problems that local and regional authorities face in implementing the environmental policies is the lack of funds, this workshop showed the LIFE + instrument, as a tool to cofinancing innovative projects that provide solutions to environmental problems. To this purpose, Mr Santiago Urquijo, from the LIFE + unit of the European Commission, was invited to present the next LIFE + programme call.




Mr. Urquijo explained how the new call will consider the impact of the actions to be developed within the projects and the socio-economic effects arising from their implementation. In addition, projects may integrate solutions or support to other policies, such as employment, regional cohesion, and so on. The Commission representative also provided some clues as to what gives a project more chances of being approved.




Session 3- Main results of the ECOVITRUM Project




Closing the seminar, the interim results of the European project ECOVITRUM were presented as a practical example of solution for WEEE management.
Firstly, Mr. Javier Ferrer analysed the reasons why an institution such as the Provincial Council of Valencia is leading a project like ECOVITRUM. Television and
computer screens are a problem to manage, but they can become an added value when considering their components and the treatment to be done in order to prevent environmental and health problems.




ECOVITRUM, with a budget of 2.4 million euros and 48% co-financed by the European Commission, studies the use of the cathode ray tubes (CRT) glass to produce raw materials in the construction sector. This is expected to reduce toxic waste in rubbish dumps and decrease the use of raw materials and energy in production processes.




Mr. Ferrer highlighted, among the achievements presented, the study of the current CRT management in Europe; the design of a pilot plant with capacity for 150,000 monitors per year; and finally, a series of feasibility studies for the use of the recovered components as raw material in the construction field.




Afterwards, two project partners, representatives of two integrated waste management systems, made their presentation. Mr. Santos presented ECO-RAEEs as a non-profit organisation which gathers 265 Spanish companies, managing 10 categories of WEEE. Among the activities carried out within the project, he mentioned the survey on municipal collection points (MCP) in the European Union and the guide of good practices. The survey on MCP includes storage systems and WEEE separation according to their nature and toxicity as well as to its further treatment.




Mrs. Hajosi presented Electrocoord as the largest WEEE Integrated Hungarian system, with contracts with more than 400 companies, managing more than 70% of the Hungarian WEEE, and 52% of the CRT. This system also separates WEEE into ten categories. Mrs. Hajosi explained the various processes of dismantling the CRT and the possible recovery options for the glass as well as the limitations and problems of each of the alternatives.




3 ECOVITRUM MAIN RESULTS




Code of best practices for Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) appliances




Among the objectives of the project, ECOVITRUM committed to elaborate a code of best practices for improved CRT management, based on the analysis of different management systems in Europe. The code of practice aims to:




• Define the decontamination of CRT according with the objective of ECOVITRUM
• Improve CRT transport, logistics and management.
• Maximize fractions recovered.
• Reduce environmental and health risks.
• Establish management systems that include the control of hazardous substances in the
recycling chain, safety and protection of workers, information security, and reuse.
• Ensure compliance with current legislation and policies.
The code establishes different requirements for the collection, sorting, transport and treatment,
including fractions and components. Among the general requirements, the following should be taken into
account:
• Workers’ protection and safety, reducing their exposure to hazardous substances. This is focused on
workers’ training, prevention programmes, creation of a health committee and emergency plans, among
others.
• Insurance coverage system against all potential risks.
• Specific security measures at the storage area.
• Anticipate a closure plan for the plant to prevent eventual contamination.




Design of a pilot container for the screens transport and storage




As a result of the survey and the development of the guide of best practices, ECOVITRUM has designed a pilot container to minimise damage to WEEE, which also
optimises space thanks to middle shelves. Furthermore, it saves logistic and transport costs .




Glass assessment and control for recycling




Cathode Ray Tubes are composed of two main parts, the screen and rear, which have different contents of lead, barium and strontium, and therefore require
proper management and separation to be used as raw materials. Following initial studies by AIDICO and Esmalglass, it has been proved that the composition of the glass allows its use as raw material for the following construction materials: cement-based materials, resinbased materials and ceramic materials.




Thus, the most feasible option would be a ceramic material, providing silica, barium, lead and strontium to frits, glazes and slips, giving value to the final product
and saving natural raw materials. A total of 800 tonnes of CRT glass are being used for the production of ceramic components.