RoRec Association launches program for local authorities

The Romanian Recycling Association RoRec is taking its actions on WEEE collection centers to the next level

October 2011 - From the Print Edition

“The WEEE collection systems inspired from WEEE Forum’s practice” is destined for local authorities interested in implementing a collection system for waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) that is both coherent and compliant with EU standards for collecting and recycling WEEE.
The program was announced during The International Fair for Services and Public Utilities (TUP) at ROMEXPO, in the presence of the newly appointed President of the National Agency for Environment Protection, Gabriel Abos, the National Guard for the Environment, local authorities, recyclers and white goods producers. With the support of the collective associations members of the WEEE Forum, that are located in Western Europe and have relevant experience and results, the RoRec Association has come up with a program with specific purpose of documentation through workshops.
“In addition to launching the five locations from the RoRec Association’s National Network of WEEE Collection Centers, that was done in partnership with city halls, we offer our support to the communities in need of these kind of services, through our program that addresses local authorities’ representatives.
The purposes of the new program are documentation, know how transfer, and asimilating new working models in order to increase performance of the services offered to the population,” explained Liviu Popeneciu, president of the RoRec Association.
“RoRec Association’s WEEE Collection Network is the solution that meets the needs of the community, of local authorities and also of producers,” added Liviu Popeneciu during the TUP fair.
“The European legislation, transposed nationally, states that we should collect at least 4 kilograms of WEEE per capita every year. Through the recent GD 1037/2010, the Romanian Government establishes the obligation to have a WEEE collecting point in each locality, while in the case of cities – one for each 50,000 inhabitants. The responsability for the collecting points belongs to the public local authorities. This reflects into real opportunities to harmonize the community need so it can benefit from coherent structures of WEEE collection, with the need of the authorities – that must set up these centers and offer inhabitants a proximity service, and with the need of the producers that are responsible for taking over collected WEEE and financing waste treatment and recycling operations,” added the President of RoRec Association.
“Setting up an infrastructure for the collecting centers is a solution with potential for increasing the flow of electric waste, since today we are currently collecting around 1.2 – 1.5 kilograms per capita yearly,” said Gabriel Abos, State Secretary and newly appointed President of the National Agency for Environment Protection. Abos further suggested that authorities should pay more attention to this service destined for the population, thus contributing to avoiding infringement procedures for not complying with the annual quota imposed by current legislation. The infringement procedures translate into penalties that can reach several hundred thousands of euros per day, paid from everyone’s pocket: mayors, ministers, law makers, large entrepreneurs or small consumers.
Although WEEE represents a small percentage from the total waste of a community, around 5-6 percent, their toxic components are extremely harmful for both the population and the environment. On the other hand they contain fractions that could be reintroduced in the industry, as secondary raw material, thus preventing irational exploitation of primary resources, since they could be recicled up to 93% with the help of state of the art technologies.
The collecting process depends on two main factors: creating the necessary infrastructure for selective collecting in compliance with European regulations, and educating the general public to use this service.
The communication session during TUP was an exchange of views between local authorities’ representatives that benefit from collecting solutions offered by RoRec Association, and the ones that are interested in implementing a WEEE collecting system. It also was a great opportunity to understand the realities of the entire waste management chain: collected quantity in a community is thoroughly supervised during treatment and recycling stages, so that valuable fractions obtained thourgh these processes could be reintroduced in the industrial circuit, while used technologies will not affect the environment and population health.