Taking place in Amsterdam on May 23, the event was chaired by Jan Visser of Mirec Benelux (part of Remondis/TSR).
The complexity of the e-waste âpuzzleâ in Europe was highlighted by Julie-Ann Adams, Chief Executive Officer of the European Electronics Recyclers Association (EERA). The review of the EUâs WEEE Directive was coinciding with efforts towards creating an EU Critical Raw Materials Act, the latter being significant for e-waste given that it constituted âa valuable source of critical raw materialsâ, she told delegates. In addition to these developments, the new Basel Convention codes applying to e-waste from January 1 2025 âare going to have a major impactâ on global movements and required forward planning by all involved.
Taking each of these in turn, Ms Adams said EERAâs key response to the European Commissionâs Call for Evidence in evaluation of the existing WEEE Directive was that âthere is one Directive but 27 different versions implemented in Member Statesâ. Her association was calling for harmonization of all requirements in the form of a regulation and mandatory hand-over of all WEEE, meaning producer responsibility for all electrical and electronic equipment.
Regarding critical raw materials, or CRMs, EERA has identified some of the main barriers to their recovery in Europe, including a lack of information on where the key CRMs can be found. According to Ms Adams, there was a need to âadvocate the use of secondary raw materialsâ as these increased the security of a national supply.
The speaker concluded by explaining that a prior informed consent (PIC) notification procedure was set to apply to all electrical and electronic waste with effect from the start of 2025 as a result of a UN Basel Convention decision taken last year. Ms Adams contended that the competent authorities were not prepared for what would be a surge in PIC applications.
Fellow guest speaker Antonia Biggs, General Manager of the Chilean Association of Recycling Industries (ANIR), explained that her countryâs extended producer responsibility law incorporated electrical and electronic devices as one of six priority products, with the volumes available nationally in 2023 put at 216,170 tonnes. The deadline for preparing a proposal establishing collection/recovery goals as well as other obligations had been extended until July this year, she said.
A new recruit to the BIR E-Scrap Committee, Yousef Al Sharif of Sharif Metals Group identified construction/infrastructure projects and substantial tech-related consumption among expatriate populations as key sources of e-waste in the Middle East where an estimated 1.74 million tonnes was generated in 2022. A 25% increase in this figure is anticipated by the year 2030.
Given the growing interest in e-waste recycling in the region as well as enhanced corporate social responsibility commitments, âwe believe huge potential lies aheadâ, the speaker concluded.
