Before we look at how WEEE waste disposal works, we need to fully understand what it is. Nowadays, there are many categories of electronic waste, and each waste must be treated differently.
But let's start with the basics: what does WEEE mean? WEEE stands for "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment," which is waste consisting of any electrical or electronic equipment that the owner intends to dispose of because it is faulty, unused or obsolete and therefore destined for abandonment.
EEE and WEEE: end-of-life treatment methods for electrical and electronic equipment
Any electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market will, at the end of its life cycle or when the holder decides to dispose of it, represent waste that must be treated as such.
Already the Ronchi Decree enacted in the late 1990s as well as the more recent waste legislation (Legislative Decree 152/06) emphasize how, in the area of waste, reuse, recycling and recovery operations assume a fundamental role.
One area in which such operations can find immediate application is that of waste electrical and electronic equipment, or more commonly WEEE, which certainly represents an important resource from which to recover useful materials that can be fed back into production cycles as secondary raw materials.
These WEEE waste disposal operations, which in specialized facilities involve equipment at the end of its life cycle, will serve to recover substances such as iron, steel, aluminum, copper , and glass while separating hazardous substances that, unintentionally released into the environment by improper handling of WEEE, could lead to the pollution of various environmental matrices (soil, water, air...).
WEEE management
The WEEE management system aims, in accordance with inherent waste laws, to minimize the components that will have to be disposed of in controlled landfills and pushes in the direction of increasing the percentages of components to be reused or materials recovered through organized management of WEEE collection, recycling and disposal operations.
This includes the collective financing systems to which, the producers of electrical and electronic equipment, can devolve the obligations set by Legislative Decree 151/05; in fact, the management of EEE waste is by law the responsibility of the producers of the same.
The macro categories of electrical and electronic equipment
Currently, two macro categories of electrical and electronic equipment can be identified:
- Household WEEE is waste electrical and electronic equipment originating from households and waste electrical and electronic equipment from commercial, industrial, institutional and other sources similar in nature and quantity to that originating from households;
- Professional WEEE is non-household WEEE, i.e., from equipment intended for professional use only.
Treatment of electrical and electronic equipment
Once the waste from electrical and electronic equipment is collected from an ecological area, large distribution or from the individual holder, it is sent to an authorized facility where it will undergo the following treatment steps:
- Safeguarding that consists mainly of removing any hazardous substances that could be harmful, in the continuum, to operators and the surrounding environment;
- Dismantling i.e., manual removal and separation of those components to be sent for reuse and recovery;
- Shredding will involve what is not sent for reuse and will see the use of shredders and mills through which it will be possible to separate and select the different materials constituting the equipment. In this way, taking advantage of advanced machinery, it will be possible to collect the different materials in appropriate containers that will then be sent to companies capable of reintroducing them into production processes;
- Disposal will involve only a fraction of the WEEE initially entering the recovery process; the ultimate fate of residual components not otherwise treatable may be waste-to-energy or landfill.
