Analysis of the development potential for the WEEE treatment industry in Italy

Oehmichen Mlanie , Tunesi Simonetta

1 2 1 2

Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Nantes, France Visiting Professor University of Padova Faculty of Engineering, Italy

Melanie.oehmichen-aupetit@centraliens-nantes.net s.tunesi@ucl.ac.uk

Abstract
In 3 years, the Italian WEEE recent management system, which is based on the principle of ''producer responsibility', dealt with the challenge to meet the UE objectives of 4kg/h/y and switch the WEEE responsibility from the Municipalities and the Waste Collection Authorities to the EEE producers. The Italian system of national consortia has set in place a highly efficient connection between producer consumers - collectors distributors; at present municipalities and their collection centers still play a role while moving to a method which will be based mainly on distributors. The aim of the research we present here is to analyze the strengths and elements to be developed of a national system that started slowly but has the potential to be efficient in the future in reaching WEEE recovery objectives.

1. Overview of the Italian WEEE management system

To achieve the goals set by the adoption of the WEEE directive in Italy in July 2007, an articulated system was created on the basis of the efficient example given by CONAI, the packaging recycling national consortium. The WEEE system is presented in figure 1. The particularity of this system is the development of a multiconsortium network: 15

"competitive" producer collectives are systems for

responsible

collection, drop-off at waste Centers,

recycling and treatment of e-waste. Each can

Consortium

address a single or
Figure 1: WEEE management entities and relationships, with material and economic flow. The precious metal recovery is only an option, that this research aims to investigate.

more waste. joined

types

of

e-

In 2007 they in a single

national organization: the Coordination Center for WEEE (CCW). CCW has the relevant responsibility of

the accreditation of collection and treatment centers, of the data collection and communication regarding WEEE management, and of the financial allocation of costs between the producers involved.

2. Collection efficiency analysis

This national consortia system enhanced the

emulation between the collective producer systems, and entailed a promising beginning, with increase in WEEE management of the order of 1 kilogram per year per inhabitant over the last three years (see graph 1). The EU objective was reached in 2010, even if Italy is still far from the levels of other European countries which have reached level as high as 15 kg/h/y, with an average of about 7kg/h/y. It is also necessary to stress that 4kg/h/y represent only about 25% of the WEEE put on the Italian market, ranging 15 to 18,5 kg/h/y: collection and recovery sectors still need to be further developed. The growth of the system is witnessed by the fact that 3564 centers of collection were active and recognized by the CCW in 2010 [1]. Collection centers are opened both to citizens and to distributors. Efforts are undertaken to strengthen the role of small retail and chain distributors, particularly to enhance the 'one-to-one' system that entered into force in 2010. The '1 to 1' requires that when 1 item is sold in a shop 1 item should be taken back at no price for the consumer replacing it. This system had been investigated by environmental organizations and it appears that it is not systematically enforced, thus reducing the level of recycling and increasing the amount of WEEE illegally dumped. The future full implementation of this system and the efforts made by all stakeholders should lead to the increase of WEEE collection to European levels, above the WEEE Directive's objective. The analogy with CONAI, the Italian national packaging consortium, highlights the high capacity of these multi-consortia structures: CONAI increased packaging recycling of 120% since its creation in 1998. There is also a high awareness that a better citizen information on WEEE issues could increase collection levels: both environmental groups and coordination centers concluded from study that a large part of the Italian population (70% didnt know about the existence of the '1 to 1' system in 2010).
Graph 1: WEEE separate collection trend in Italy

3. Dismantling and pre-treatment sector

The recovery and dismantling sector is rather well developed in Italy: 77 treatment facilities were active and accredited by the CCW in 2010. These facilities mainly perform the dismantling of WEEE, the removal of hazardous substances, the material separation of plastic, glass and metal and their recovery. The legal requirement set for treatment centers is a recovery and recycling percentage comprised between 65 and

80% of the total weight of the WEEE in each single category. The analysis of this sector, in terms of inputs and outputs to the several centers, is not publicly available yet, for this reason it is still difficult to analyze the performance of the dismantling and pre-processing facilities in preparing the materials for the complete recovery.

4. End-processing and treatment industry

The WEEE treatment industry is still partially developed and the data about the fluxes of components containing precious metal from pretreatment facilities are not well determined yet. The contribution in weight of recycled material to the recovery industry of the WEEE system was estimated to be in total weight about 20% for the metals, 7% for the plastics, and 2% for the glass [2]. A more sensible issue is the end-processing of components containing precious or special metals, like printed card boards: the pretreatment facilities dealing with them commonly dont perform directly their recovery but separate and send them to more specialized treatment facilities. Developing this sector would reduce the loss of precious metal and possible environmental and health damages associated with an inappropriate treatment in foreign countries.

5. Research objective and Method

Our preliminary analysis shows that the collection and recovery national network has already been set in place, and that several pre-treatment and treatment facilities are already operating. Consequently our research fill focus on the development of the treatment industry, in particular addressing the feasibility of developing the technological sector for the recovery of precious metals. Objectives: To increase the amount of E-waste collected and recovered, so as to reduce and eliminate the environmental damage of illegal WEEE dumping and export to foreign Countries; To analyze the technical and market feasibility of developing in Italy the industrial sector for the recovery of precious metals from selected WEEE products. Method: Collect data from CCW and by contacting selected facilities; Analyze the flow of WEEE at the national level; Define the current pre-treatment and treatment capacity; On the basis of the lack of capacity and the analysis of the state of the art of the technological sector, define the potential for precious metal treatment industry development in Italy.

6. References
[1] Centro di coordinamento RAEE (CCW), Rapporto annuale 2010 sul sistema di ritiro e trattamento dei rifiuti da apparecchiature elettriche ed elettroniche, 2010. (Annual report on WEEE management) [2] FSSI and Fise UNIRE, LItalia del riciclo 2010 (Italy of recycling -2010), 2010, pp. 157-172.