What policies does the Waste Agency of Catalonia apply to improve the collection rates of electrical and electronic equipment and the management of WEEE?

The policies pursued are threefold

a) Collection points should be able to ensure the documentary traceability of the waste they take possession of in the most efficient way possible. In this regard, a portal has been set up in the SDR to register in the SDR without needing to register as a producer. In the same vein, the signature of the producer/holder on these documents will be removed but with the guarantees that it is informed at all times of the traceability of the waste and the EPRCSs can be listed as notifier.

b) In order to comply with the WEEE regulations, within the framework of the agreements between the EPRCSs and the Waste Agency of Catalonia, since 2008, communication campaigns have been carried out in Catalonia, on a discontinuous basis, to raise awareness about and increase the selective collection of this equipment. Campaigns have been carried out to make electronics and electrical appliance shops aware that they are WEEE collection points and about how they should manage them as intermediaries, so that citizens know that, as well as taking them to recycling centres, they can also take them to these shops, which are legally required to collect them. Campaigns have also been carried out to train  recycling centre and logistics distribution platforms technicians in WEEE management in order to facilitate a correct selection of WEEE suitable for preparation for reuse (PxR) as well as campaigns to inform the public that in the online purchase process they can select the option for the delivery technician to take the old appliance when the new one is delivered. Therefore, work is being done on a number of fronts. The latest data on the collection of WEEE of household origin in Catalonia indicates that in 2021, 40,564.65 tonnes of WEEE were collected in our region, 5.23 kilos per inhabitant per year. In the 2016-2020 period, the number of WEEE managed in Catalonia increased by 35.6%, but there is still a large amount that is not managed correctly, and the selective collection targets set out in the regulations are still not being met, resulting in a huge waste of resources.

c) Carry out the necessary actions to ensure the collection and treatment of WEEE whenever there is a disruption in service.

In your opinion, what role should Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCS) play? Do you think it is necessary to make changes to the current role of EPRCSs in waste management?

Undoubtedly, Law 7/2022 of 8 April on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy sets out a new legal framework. Therefore, EPRCSs must take advantage of the synergies offered by this new situation by promoting the role of the environmental sector as the backbone of the circular economy, from the capillarity of collections to the transformation of waste into resources. EPRCSs must guarantee the collection and treatment of waste and therefore they need contingency plans for cases that may jeopardise WEEE collection and valorisation targets.

EPRCSs should play a significant role in connecting the needs of producers (manufacturers and importers) and waste managers. EPRCSs should incentivise, through the fees they charge producers, the marketing of products that are durable, repairable, recyclable and that incorporate recovered materials.

In this respect, EPRCSs could collect information from waste managers on which types of WEEE have higher levels of repairability, dismantlability and recyclability and which types of products have higher management costs; they could also collect from producers their requirements for incorporating recovered materials into the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) they manufacture and import. A proactive attitude of EPRCSs in this direction would help to bring extended producer responsibility back to its original intention, which is that producers be aware of and responsible for the environmental impacts of their products and, in order to minimise these impacts, make their design and production more sustainable.

What is your assessment of the entry into force of Royal Decree 993/2022 of 29 November, by which control measures are adopted for the import of electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators from third countries?

This regulation directly affects importers, requiring them to place safe products on the market that comply with the applicable regulations, so that in a globalised world, products introduced into the EU are at the same level and subject to the same environmental control rules in order to avoid comparative disadvantages with respect to third countries. We hope that the implementation of such a standard will reduce the import of products that do not comply with extended producer responsibility.

How will the management of electrical and electronic waste from new green energies impact on the development of the circular economy and the energy transition?

New technologies in the field of green energy must lead to increasingly positive impacts on the basis of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses. The production of new waste will create new opportunities in the private sector that will increase the relevance and efficiency of the environmental sector.

What key issues do you think need to be addressed at the European level in the coming years?

The EU’s environmental legal machinery is moving at an impressive pace due to the increasingly alarming values of climate change indicators. In this regard, the circular economy is expected to be the driving force behind the model of the society of the future, with a great deal of emphasis on the eco-design of the products placed on the market.

In your opinion, what plans should be promoted to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda?

One of the most waste management-related of the 17 SDGs is the 12th on responsible production and consumption. It says that there is a need to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and that there is a need for production that consumes less natural resources and pollutes less. It points out that consumer education should encourage more responsible and aware consumption. In order to achieve the SDGs for WEEE, it is necessary to meet the targets set by WEEE legislation and in particular to encourage marketing of durable and repairable products and their preparation for reuse.

The 5th WEEE Congress is scheduled to be held in Barcelona in October. What do you expect of this congress?

The WEEE Congress brings together all the agents involved in the sector, from the administration to producers and distributors, as well as managers and also consumers, themselves. The event is organised by the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCSs) for Electrical and Electronic Equipment, which are grouped in OfiRaee.

We are working on the organisation of the Congress, together with the EPRCSs, and we are convinced that it will be a good opportunity to make further progress in improving the sustainability of EEE.

In particular, it seems to us that the congress should be an opportunity to establish an open dialogue of trust between all actors involved in the EEE- WEEE chain. We would like this congress to lead to a closer relationship between EEE producers and WEEE managers and for the knowledge shared to favour the establishment of the conditions EEE must meet in order to be more durable, repairable and recyclable and also the conditions that recovered materials must meet in order to be incorporated into EEE. We would like to see concrete projects emerge from this congress, involving producers and managers, which contribute in a practical and effective way to the circularity of WEEE.