Promoting social awareness
Jordi Julián | Business Strategy and Development Manager
Jordi Julián | Business Strategy and Development Manager
2022 has definitely been a year with a significant increase in communication and dissemination activities aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of reuse and recycling, both for professionals and society in general. In addition to the actions and activities detailed in this chapter, it is also worth highlighting the efforts made to increase our communication through ECOTIC‘s digital channels, both on the website and through our newsletter and publications on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
In the professional field, as usual, our efforts to continue promoting the Ecoinstaladores programme stand out, in order to increase awareness among this group of the need to uninstall air conditioning equipment correctly and, at the same time, offer them solutions that allow them to properly manage the waste generated.
In the social sphere, two actions stand out: the Sustainable Digitisation campaign aimed at companies and the Otro final es posible (Another end is possible) campaign aimed at schools. Both emphasise the need to reuse and recycle electrical and electronic equipment.
These are two pillars in our communication programme that provide us with more than satisfactory results in terms of quantities collected at household and professional level and increased reuse, while reducing the digital divide. However, the activities carried out during 2022 are many more and include actions in the different autonomous regions.
The initiative, aimed at professional installers, is one of the programmes that ECOTIC has been developing for years.
With training and informative actions that promote the proper deinstallation of air conditioning equipment and with tailored solutions for waste management, the campaign is carried out at national level, thanks to the collaboration agreements we have established with leading trade associations such as the Asociación de Empresas del Sector de las Instalaciones y la Energía de Madrid (Agremia), the Federació de Gremis d’Instal·ladors de Catalunya (FEGICAT), the Asociación Provincial de Empresas Instaladoras de Sevilla (Epyme) and the installation companies group ASOFRIO, among others.
In addition to the training activities, Ecoinstaladores has been present with information stands at various congresses and trade fairs, including EFINTEC at Fira Barcelona, the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Fair at IFEMA in Madrid, the EscoFeria in Murcia and Malaga and the GiBaix Trobafira held in Cornellà de Llobregat.
It also organised the webinar “Waste electrical and electronic equipment management in installation companies”.
The warm reception given to this campaign by companies and freelancers across the country led to the launch in January 2022 of its second edition, Sustainable Digitisation, promoted by CEOE Foundation, ECOTIC Foundation, and the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
Its mission is to collect and refurbish computer equipment to give it a second use by handing it over to social organisations that care for groups at risk of exclusion, educational and training centres and non-profit rest homes for the elderly.
In addition to bridging the digital divide, the campaign highlights the shared commitment
to promoting the wise use of technology to achieve several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including quality education (SDG 4), reduction of inequalities (SDG 10), responsible production and consumption (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13) and partnerships to achieve goals (SDG 17).
In the two editions held, 40% of the computers donated by more than 100 companies have been reconditioned, amounting to a total of over 6,500 computers and components delivered to 60 social entities, which has benefited more than 60,000 people.
After a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19, a new edition of the educational campaign Otro Final es Posible (Another end is possible) was launched in December 2022 to promote the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment and the circular economy among young people. On this occasion, this initiative had the collaboration of the Regional Ministries of Environment, Housing and Territorial Planning and Education of the Government of Castilla y León.
Otro final es posible encourages the habit of recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) among Primary and Secondary school students. Through training and participatory activities, students and teachers were made aware of the need to prevent the generation of waste, and of the importance of recovering and valorising the materials they contain, in order to avoid the depletion of finite natural resources.
As a parallel activity to Otro final es posible, ECOTIC provided the schools with specific training materials on composting, and offered them the chance to install a composter in their facilities so that students could participate in making compost from the organic waste generated in the schools and in their own homes.
Under the slogan “Bring in one of your toys you have grown out of and give it another life”. Between 17 June and 10 July, the ninth edition of the Comparte y Recicla (Share and Recycle) solidarity campaign took place. This promotes the collection of toys for children in vulnerable situations and also disseminates content relating to environmental protection and the integration of people with functional diversity in the workplace.
This campaign, in collaboration with ECOTIC, provided citizens with collection points at El Corte Inglés, Hipercor and Mail Boxes centres, where the SEUR Foundation was responsible for collecting them and delivering them to the ILADE Special Employment Centre for inspection, ensuring that they were suitable to be given a second life. ECOTIC took care of the recycling of toys that were not suitable for reuse.
With this campaign, 12.47 tonnes of toys have been recycled, which is the equivalent of 140 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent of 2.9 hectares of pine trees in one year).
The campaign was also supported by Mediaset España through its social communication project 12 Meses.
As usual, ECOTIC collaborates in informative and communication actions with organisations, professional and sector associations. In the last financial year we carried out actions to promote the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment, setting up collection containers, such as those introduced in Andalusia through two collaboration agreements with the Seville and Province Hotel Association (AHS) and with the Andalusian Federation and Association for Electrical Appliances and Other Household Equipment (FAEL/AAEL); the action carried out during the 8th Healthy and Sustainable Week organised by the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and the agreement to install selective collection containers at Samsung’s technical services facilities.
We often collaborate in the awareness campaigns on the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment launched by the different regions through their local authorities, trade associations or educational centres.
Some of the campaigns launched by the Autonomous Regions in 2022 were:
The Government of Castilla-La Mancha launched Tú eres la llave (You are the Key), an awareness-raising campaign to promote the proper recycling of various types of waste, namely light packaging, cardboard, paper, glass, electrical and electronic equipment, and bio-waste. This is a pioneering programme at regional level because for the first time it was carried out jointly through a collaboration agreement with the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCS) for the management of the various types of waste.
Recicla con los 5 sentidos (Recycle with all 5 senses) is an environmental education and awareness-raising project launched by the Valencian Government with the collaboration of the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems, which aims to make all citizens of Valencia Region, through different free and in-person workshops tackling different aspects, jointly responsible for the recycling of light packaging, glass, paper and cardboard waste, and small electrical and electronic appliances.
ECOTIC, through RAEE Andalucía, collaborated in the 20th Feria de la Ciencia (Science Fair), which was held in face-to-face and virtual formats, and which includes the Sustainable Development Goals among its central themes. The Seville Exhibition and Conference Centre hosted 120 exhibitors at a fair hat enjoyed the collaboration of more than 40 organisations including research centres, universities, companies and other scientific institutions in Andalusia, as well as 800 researchers and science communicators.
This campaign to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and reusing waste electrical and electronic equipment is promoted by RAEE Andalucía, the Department of Sustainability, Environment and Blue Economy of the Andalusian Regional Government and the Andalusian Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FAMP), with the support of the EPRCSs that operate in the region and the participation of the El Rocío Brotherhoods of the eight Andalusian provinces that installed selective WEEE collection containers and set up information points at the Feria del Rocio fairs in Seville and Cadiz.
RAEE Andalucía, with the support of the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCS) in the region, launched the third edition of the Dona vida al planeta (Donate life to the planet) campaign to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and reusing waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). 220 municipalities in the eight Andalusian provinces participated through 630 street marketing actions and visits to retail shops and university campuses, reaching 6.9 million people in Andalusia.
ECOTIC collaborated with the Generació Reset (Reset Generation) project, promoted by the Government of Catalonia and the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC) with the collaboration of Andròmines i Eduxarxa, to raise awareness among young people of the environmental and social problems deriving from the production of 2nd cycle of ESO (15 and 16 years), Baccalaureate and Training Centres, it promotes local mobile phone repair and recycling initiatives in schools and distributes teaching materials so that schools can prepare their projects.
The second edition of the recycling campaign Recicla’ls com es mereixen (Recycle them as they deserve), promoted by the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC) in collaboration with local authorities, Barcelona Provincial Council and the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCSs) for the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), aimed to inform consumers about their right to return appliances they no longer use at the point of sale when purchasing a new one and stressed the opportunity to hand in WEEE to home delivery services at the time of delivery of new appliances.
Held in the Zaragoza Auditorium, this congress, organised by the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCSs), is the most important meeting of the electronic recycling sector in our country and one of the most important in Europe. It was attended by 400 professionals from the electronic recycling sector who discussed and shared experiences, strategies and regulations on the circular economy linked to WEEE, the European Green Pact and sustainable development.
Launched by the Department of Rural Development and Environment of Navarra, together with the Office of Waste Prevention and Promotion of the Circular Economy (OPREC), with the support of Navarra Environmental Management-Nafarroako Ingurumen Kudeaketa (GAN-NIK) and the collaboration of the Extended Producer Responsibility Collective Systems (EPRCSs), the campaign En Navarra somos de reciclar / Birziklatzeko zaleak, halaxekoak gara Nafarroan. (In Navarra we recycle) was launched. On this occasion it was aimed at the retail and hotel and catering sectors which, with the campaign slogan “¡En este establecimiento somos de reciclar!
/ Birziklatzeko zaleak, halakoak gara establezimendu honetan!” (In this establishment we recycle!) highlighted those businesses that manage their waste properly.
The Metropolitan Entity for Waste Treatment (EMTRE), in collaboration with ECOTIC and Ambilamp, launched this information campaign with the aim of informing the public about the correct management of small household appliances, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes using the network of fixed and mobile ecoparks in the metropolitan area of Valencia free of charge.
With the collaboration of ECOTIC and Ambilamp, León City Council, during the Christmas holidays, launched this initiative to raise awareness of the importance of the proper recovery and subsequent treatment of WEEE, and the shared responsibility of all citizens in achieving this by moving towards a new model of production and consumption.