Invitation to the online workshop “Boosting small WEEE and battery collection: insights and strategies from the ECOSWEEE Project” 10/12/2024 10:00-12:30

Interested to hear about strategies to improve the collection of small WEEE and waste portable batteries in Europe?

On 10 December 2024 morning, the ECOSWEEE project organises an online workshop entitled “Boosting small WEEE and battery collection: insights and strategies from the ECOSWEEE Project” to present and discuss with participants the projects findings preliminary conclusions and policy recommendations. Over the course of the project, 20 pilots have been conducted to testing collection systems making use of different types of incentives (including: deposit return systems, buyback, other rewards, bring points, postal services, pick up services, visible fee, contest and donations).

The workshop is open to all interested participants from relevant stakeholder groups (e.g. academia and experts, government and European institutions, private sector, consumer associations and NGOs).

Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUlce2rrzgoGNCcc4N1gR-AmchNjQ_Un-2X#/registration

Looking forward to seeing you and hearing your thoughts in the workshop!

Join Us at EGG+2024 for Insightful Discussions on WEEE Collection

This June, our team is excited to present at the prestigious Electronics Goes Green Conference (EGG+2024), an event dedicated to advancing sustainable practices within the electronics industry. Our session, part of the hybrid Session D.6: WEEE Collection Rates, will take place on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, from 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM in Grenander 3.

Entitled “Challenges and Best Practices in the Collection of Small WEEE and Waste Portable Batteries in Europe,” the presentation by Filippo Stringa from (ERION) and Elise Vermeersch (UNITAR) will delve into the significant results from our consultations across Europe. We will explore the types of incentives designed by EPR schemes to enhance collection rates, uncover best practices, address prevalent challenges, and analyse the factors influencing consumers’ disposal choices and their perspectives on current collection initiatives.

As seating is limited, we encourage all interested attendees to register early to secure their participation in these critical discussions. For more details on the conference and our session, visit EGG+2024 Sessions.

The ECOSWEEE Project organized its second Advisory Board (AB) meeting on Wednesday 8th November

The ECOSWEEE Project organized its second Advisory Board (AB) meeting on Wednesday 8th November. Participants received an update on the project activities, including a presentation of the mapping of best practices for collection of small WEEE and waste portable batteries, a summary of the results from the stakeholder workshop, an overview of the preliminary recommendations for the design and implementation of incentive-driven take back scheme, and an outline of the ECOSWEEE Pilots. Elizabeth O’Reilly from WEEE Ireland, one of the project pilot implementers, presented its Blue Battery Box & Charity Incentive programme and Carsten Waldeck, a member of the AB, presented the deposit return system (DRS) implemented by his company SHIFT GmbH.

General discussions covered among others the benefits and challenges associated with DRS, consumers’ behavior and awareness, and the opportunity and added value to combine different incentives, such as contest and raffles with charity donation or non-monetary reward.

The next AB meeting will take place in about one year, to discuss the outcomes of the pilots’ impact assessment and the project’s key conclusion and recommendations.

Core consortium kick-off meeting

The official kick-off meeting of the ECOSWEEE project was a 2-day event held in Brussels (Belgium) on May 11th and 12th. Representatives from core organisations involved in the consortium (WEEE Forum, UNITAR, SPI, ERION and Ramboll), as well as from the European Commission (Maria Banti, EC officer) participated in the meeting.

The objective of the meeting was to lay the foundations for the ECOSWEEE project, in order to get the project off the ground and officially get started on the proceedings for the implementation of the activities planned.

This core meeting will be continued by an online consortium meeting on May 25th with representatives from all organisations.