The ECOLEC Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), says that in the Canary Islands in 2022 it has handled 5,776 tonnes of such waste, which corresponds to 9.04 kilograms per inhabitant.
For Luis Moreno, Executive Director of Fundación Ecolec, the figure indicate “the commitment of residents of the islands to recycling electrical and e-waste, the environment and the circular economy”.
In this sense, the Executive Director wished to emphasize the responsibility of the community in recycling WEEE. “In this municipality, the residents are very observant,” said Luis Moreno. On the other hand, most of the gross tonnage (5,776 tons) managed in the Canary Islands is in the domestic sector (5,528 tons), with the rest in the specialized sector.
At the national level, in 2022 he said the amount of such waste properly treated by the ECOLEC Foundation amounted to 118,377 tons. This makes it the only Extended Producer Responsibility “EPRS” collective system in Spain, which for the sixth consecutive year has correctly disposed of more than 100,000 tons of electrical and electronic waste annually.
About 50 million tons of e-waste are generated worldwide every year. This type of waste is increasing the most due to the mass consumption of electrical and electronic equipment, digitization and technological progress. According to E-Waste Monitor 2020, an estimated 100 million tonnes of e-waste will be generated by 2050, with a current recycling rate of less than 20%. “There is ample evidence that recycling electrical and electronic waste is essential. Poorly recycled refrigerators, for example, emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere equivalent to a car driven 15,000 kilometers.” said Luis Moreno.
He also said, “The consequences of improperly recycling electronic devices when they no longer work is a world in which the extraction of raw materials to manufacture these products has profound social and environmental consequences. It is even worse in regions of the world,” he said.
All electronic devices used in our daily life can get a second life if properly recycled. Each user becomes a protagonist in a process that can be given an appropriate purpose, offering reuse possibilities on the one hand and contributing to sustainable, responsible and environmentally friendly demolition and decontamination on the other.
