International E-waste Day
It is estimated that 50 million tonnes of e-waste will be generated globally in 2018. Half of this is personal devices such as computers, screens, smartphones, tablets and TVs, with the remainder being larger household appliances and heating and cooling equipment.
Only 20% of global e-waste is recycled each year, which means that 40 million tonnes of e-waste is either placed in landfill, burned or illegally traded and treated in a sub-standard way and this is despite 66% of the world’s population being covered by e-waste legislation. This results in the huge loss of valuable and critical raw materials from the supply chain and causes serious health, environmental and societal issues through illegal shipments of waste to developing countries.
Even in the EU, which leads the world in e-waste recycling, only 35% of e-waste is officially reported as collected and recycled and the lack of public awareness is preventing countries from developing circular economies for electronic equipment.
In this context, the International E-Waste Day has been developed by the WEEE Forum with the support of 25 not-for-profit e-waste companies in 19 different countries across the world. It is being used to raise the public profile of e-waste recycling and encourage consumers to recycle their e-waste with the resulting increase in e-waste recycling rates on the day itself and into the future.
The very first International E-waste Day will be held this year! This exciting initiative will take place on the 13 October 2018 in Europe and globally thanks to extensive collaboration between the WEEE Forum and its members. International E-waste Day will focus on raising awareness on e-waste issues and e-waste collection and recycling. Please see below the list of the activities taking place in different countries.
Geographical coverage of the initiative.
If you are not a WEEE Forum member, how can you participate?
The WEEE Forum Community welcomes external partners to support the initiative. We need as many hands as possible to improve the situation! Please contact us at info@weee-forum.org so we can coordinate your involvement in this WEEE Forum initiative.
Planned activities' overview:
| WEEE Forum members | ||
| ANZRP |
Australia
|
* general communication activities |
| UFH |
Austria
|
* Mobile phones school collections * In cooperation with Jane Goodall Institute |
| Recupel |
Belgium
|
* Game for secondary schools focusing on Circular Economy: Raw material hunt: The mission is to sell as much electrical appliances as possible in an ecologically and socially responsible manner. Raw material hunt is a playful way to experience in class that it is possible to continue producing electrical equipment, without disadvantages for the planet and the population. Moreover students pick up a lot of relevant and scientific information along the way. * in cooperation with GoodPlanet |
| EPRA |
Canada
|
* general communication activities |
| ASEKOL and Elektrowin |
Czech Republic
|
* school information campaigns |
| EES Ringlus |
Estonia
|
* Annual awareness campaign about E-waste in partnership with the website https://kuhuviia.ee/en * social media campaign about collecting WEEE. |
| IRF |
Iceland
|
* IRF working with: Collectors, municipalities, EPA, trade and industry |
| WEEE Ireland |
Ireland
|
• Corporate: October 8th launch International E-Waste Day at WEEE Ireland Conference: Future Proofing through Innovation and Excellence • Householder PR: Photocall and national press release • Schools: Launch of mobile phones recycling pilot with data destruction • Local Authority Partnership: Promotion and advertising of WEEE recycling at local recycling centres • Advertising: Online and social media advertising campaign • Members: Dedicated newsletter to Members • Promotion of dedicated small WEEE website: https://www.weeeireland.ie/small-things-matter/ |
| Ecodom |
Italy
|
Communication campaign done in partnership with the National Consumers Union (UNC), the first consumer association in Italy: • to create an on-line guide, explaining to Consumers what WEEE is and how to dispose it; • press release and media relations activity; • newsletter (sent to 200.000 subscribers): a landing page with the project description and the link for the free download of the guide; • social media communication campaign. |
| Re.media |
Italy
|
* Remedia will organize a special event with AIRES (the Italian electronics retailer association) to promote the “one to zero” in store collection of small WEEE. |
| EGIO |
Lithuania
|
*Photo contest in the frame of the educational project, ‘Mes rūšiuojam (We recycle), involving more than 2220 institutions, called ‘Exposure from Electronics Waste’ *Communication activities in the national media, radio and TV |
| WEEE Malta |
Malta
|
* seminars for producers, * activity targeted for school children * WEEE collection activities |
| Wecycle |
Netherlands
|
* Launch of ‘Recycletainment’ communication campaign, first time on Snapchat, with the goal to hand in more small WEEE at shops * Press release * Online promotion |
| Norsirk and Renas |
Norway
|
* Focus on the dealers and information to shop employees about the producer responsibility system: awareness campaign towards members with shops about their responsibility to accept returns of WEEE and proper sorting and storage. * Information for consumers about the take back solution * In collaboration with Norwegian Environment Agency who will issue information materials, posters and fact sheets and newspaper articles about EPR and its effects. |
| ElektroEko |
Poland
|
* Information campaigns and collections in more than 3000 schools |
| ECOTIC |
Romania
|
More information to follow |
| Environ |
Romania
|
More information to follow |
| RoRec |
Romania
|
* Information and education campaign with the schools participating in the Recycling Patrol Program * Local public awareness campaigns in cooperation with local authorities |
| ZEOS |
Slovenia
|
* Between 8-24 October 2018 a local campaign on the proper handling of electrical and electronic equipment focused on: * involved shareholders: local public waste management services, municipalities, e-waste collectors, local media, schools (15-20 schools or 10.000 children), NGOs, households (40.000). |
| Ecotic |
Spain
|
More information to follow |
| SENS |
Switzerland
|
* comic book for primary schools * Social media campaign with a challenge for an eBike * Influencer campaign |
| SWICO |
Switzerland
|
* social media photo contest |
| REPIC |
United Kingdom
|
* publication of survey results about consumers' motivation for WEEE recycling/reuse |
| External organisations | ||
| International Finance Corporation (IFC) |
 |
Conference: E-waste management: Yesterday, today and tomorrow 13th October 2018, 10:00-13:00, New Delhi (more info to follow) |
