RoRec Projects

Context. The key factor for success in any activity requiring the participation of households is communication between the organisers and the households. Experience shows that it takes years until a new programme for waste separation at the source gets to be accepted by the majority of households, even with an efficient information support. Romania is faced today with the challenge of having to introduce all general schemes for separation at the source in only a few years. This is why the government has organised EU-financed projects in order to introduce these schemes. Two of these projects are the WEEE Project for the implementation of a WEEE system in line with the EU Directive, and EICWM, an information and awareness-raising project aiming to support the separation at the source and selective collection of various types of waste. The two projects agreed to co-operate in order to support the introduction of collection and treatment schemes organised according to the Romanian legislation. These schemes would replace the current collection and recycling activities organised by the informal sector. This decision resulted in a pilot project organised by the WEEE Project. The pilot project will represent the beginning of the collection and treatment schemes that must be created according to Romanian legislation. The pilot project will be designed and organised in partnership with • ECO TIC, RoRec and RECOLAMP collective organisations • The Municipality of Brasov • Brasov household waste collection companies attending private households in Brasov; URBAN S.A. and COMPREST S.A. • EICWM Project. WEEE collection through the household waste management services is part of the collection of large objects. This service is addressed by EICWM, which will organise one of the eight public awareness-raising campaigns contracted in Brasov, in coordination with the other project partners. The Pilot Project partners agreed on the following implementation programme. Objectives of the Pilot Project • The main objective of the pilot project is to establish a good and repeatable example of a WEEE recovery scheme in order to encourage local councils and household waste collection services suppliers to implement the collection schemes in cooperation with the collective organisations. • The secondary objective is to get feedback, to be used for future implementation of collecting programmes, as well as cost calculations, in order to check the feasibility of a financial scheme for WEEE collection and treatment, based on the experience of other countries. The specific aims of the pilot project are: • to assess the public perception and acceptance of the WEEE collection schemes offered • to describe and register WEEE collected at the collection centres and through the one-to-one take-over schemes run in shops and organised by the collective organisations; • to calculate the collection, transport and treatment costs of collected WEEE; • to asses the importance of the informal WEEE collection sector; • to find out about the experiences of local authorities and waste management companies involved in the collection / treatment activities within the WEEE project. The Aims of the Pilot Project are: • to establish a sustainable WEEE recovery scheme at the end of the pilot project; • to establish sustainable cooperation between collective organisations, municipal authorities and waste collection services providers. Implementing the Pilot Project 1. Collection. The following schemes will be organised • Collecting WEEE separated at the source at the collection centres, together with large waste from households. • Taking over WEEE exchanged in one-to-one programmes, either from retail merchants or from households on delivery of new EEE. • Receiving WEEE at the collection centres from households or persons / traders / collective organisations for WEEE from households and traders. In parallel with the system above, WEEE can be picked up directly from the private houses for a fee. Collection can be requested over the phone. The volume collected in this way is marginal in comparison with collection from platforms. The advantage of this system is that waste is selected correctly at the source and wrapped, and the WEEE will be treated in a non-polluting manner. This system will be supported by the pilot project awareness-raising campaigns. 2. Public awareness-raising campaigns. The campaigns must lead to a change in consumer behaviour, in line with the implemented EU legislation. Consumers must separate all types of WEEE at the source and hand it over to the collection systems organised by the municipality and the collecting companies. This is a difficult task, because consumers often receive payment for WEEE in the informal sector, while the new systems will not pay anything. It will take years to change this behaviour; this is why campaigns represent only the beginning of a long awareness-raising period, for which the government, the municipalities and the producers are responsible. In order to attract people’s attention, visibility in the media is important. The media is only interested in news; in this case, events and success. In order to be successful, it is necessary to involve private households. This is why a successful awareness-raising campaign is needed. Public awareness-raising campaigns will be organised together with the project partners, who will all contribute to organising and implementing campaign activities. All activities will be coordinated by the Consultant / WEEE Project. The objective and public awareness-raising strategy of the Pilot Project. 1. The objective of the main public awareness-raising campaign is to inform EEE consumers about the existence of WEEE collecting systems, which recycle WEEE according to the requirements of Romanian legislation, and about their own obligation to separate WEEE at the source and hand it over to the collection systems. The awareness-raising activities must be maintained in the long term. 2. The purpose is to make people aware of the WEEE and large waste collection and treatment systems, as well as of the obligation to separate all these types of waste at the source and hand it over to the legal collection systems. 3. Target groups: • Private households • Other EEE consumers; companies, institutions, industrial plants • Retail traders • Producers The campaign will include detailed messages indicating that: • WEEE must be handed in to the legal collection systems, to ensure environment-friendly disposal of hazardous components and recycling of non-metallic materials; • Traders’ obligation to receive an old piece of equipment when a new one of the same type is purchased; • Services offered by the collection systems and service suppliers’ contact details. Within the PHARE-financed project ‘Implementing European Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment management’, whose beneficiary is the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development, a pilot project is run in Brasov. Its aim is to create and develop a WEEE management scheme. Its implementation started in autumn last year and it included a local public information and awareness-raising campaign on WEEE: information on the existence of the WEEE collection system in Brasov (selective waste collection platforms and the possibility to have the WEEE taken away on request from your own door) and raising awareness of the importance of handing the waste electrical and electronic equipment over to this system. RoRec contributed to this pilot project, cooperating with the project team and with the Municipality of Brasov. RoRec also offered household appliances as prizes for the raffle organised as part of the awareness-raising campaign in Brasov.