WEEE COORDINATION CENTER “2022 ANNUAL REPORT”

The WEEE Coordination Center has published the 2022 Annual Report on e-waste collection in Italy.

In 2022, just over 361,000 tons of waste from electrical and electronic equipment were sent for proper recycling by the collective systems of EEE producers in Italy. The growth in the volumes of WEEE sent for recycling slowed down compared to 2021, concerning all three macro-areas of Italy:

  • the North (-8.6%) recorded the biggest decrease but confirmed its supremacy in overall and per capita volumes (6.72 kg/inhabitant);
  • the Center (-6.3%) confirms a per capita value above the national average (6.21 kg/inhab);
  • the South (-1.1%) suffers the mildest setback, but the per capita value (5.15 kg/inhab) falls short of the national average.

The factors causing such a trend are multiple. First and foremost is the dispersion of WEEE, originating from the incorrect EER code attribution to electronic waste, the existence of parallel flows outside official channels and the failure of citizens to deliver especially small WEEE.

Another element is the decline in EEE sales during the year following the major increases in purchases that characterized the previous two-year period: a lower turnover of equipment has affected the quantities discarded.

These were compounded by fewer municipal collection centers in the Central and Southern regions: of the nearly 4,400 centers, only 15 percent are located in central Italy and only 28 percent in the South.

The contraction in collection flows has affected all WEEE groupings across the board, albeit with different variations. R1 waste (cold and climate, 98,937 tons) experienced the smallest decline (-0.7 percent). In contrast, R2 waste (large whites, first by weight with 117,472 tons) experienced the second-worst decline among all groupings (-9.3%). Volumes of R3 waste (TVs and appliances with screens, 71,035 tons) also declined significantly (-6.7 percent), just as for R4 waste (consumer electronics and small household appliances, 71,494 tons) the contraction continued (-7.5 percent). Lastly, the decline in the collection of R5 (light sources, 2,444 tons) was the largest (-9.9%).

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