Ecological transition, the other side of the coin:Italy ranks last in Europe for electronic waste recycling

Our country is struggling to recover the raw materials useful for the ecological transition:the problems, more than in the recycling plants, are in the collection phase

Of all the European rankings there is one in which Italy has always felt safe:the circular economy.For years our country has led the rankings of the 27 EU states.In 2020, the waste recycling rate in Italy was 83.2%, compared to a European average of 39.2%.The same goes for the circularity of materials, i.e. the quantity of raw materials recovered and then reintroduced into the economy:our country came in second place (after France) with 21.6%, a figure also in this case well above the European average (12.8%).Yet, there are some sectors of the recycling industry in which Italy is not at all a leader in Europe.This is the case of WEEE (Waste electrical and electronic equipment):household appliances, computers, smartphones, photovoltaic panels, medical devices and more.For this type of waste, Italy is at fourth to last place in Europe with a recycling rate of 32.1%.

All of these devices contain large amounts of critical raw materials, considered fundamental for the ecological transition.To date, however, a large part of these materials is wasted.The transition to renewable sources and the electrification of transport will require ever-increasing quantities of critical raw materials, starting with lithium and rare earths.And this is why the government has set up a working group to find possible deposits under Italian soil.Experts warn that Italy's geological potential is very limited and suggest another solution:invest in recycling.Second Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Economy, the EU imports 80% of the critical raw materials it consumes.Only through recycling, the CDP report highlights, could 52% of the demand for lithium and 58% of that for cobalt be satisfied.

The collection of WEEE and the disappearance of the "great whites"

In order not to undermine the foundations of the ecological transition, Italy must invest in the recycling of WEEE.And to do this we must first make up for the accumulated delay.In absolute terms, the waste treated is increasingly:in 2021 Italy managed 510,367 tonnes of WEEE, 6.6% more than in 2020.The European objectives, however, are based on the percentage of waste that is treated compared to what was placed on the market in the previous three years.And in recent years, WEEE emissions have grown at a much higher rate than the collection rate, moving Italy further away from European objectives.In 2019, Italy collected 39% of the WEEE released, in 2021 the figure dropped to 34%.«To date we are collecting about half of what the European Union asks of us, we still have a long way to go», admits Fabrizio Longoni, general director of the WEEE Coordination Centre.

Yet, in Italy there are plants for the recovery of electronic waste:the CdC has accredited 46 of them, for a total of 135 production lines.The problem lies in the collection.«I'll give you an example:for each washing machine there is an obligation to recover up to 80% of the original weight of the product.A significant part of WEEE disappears precisely for this reason:we prefer to classify waste in another way and not have obligations", explains Longoni.This phenomenon is linked above all to the "big whites", i.e. washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators and the like.«It happens that distribution companies collect the non-working appliance from the customer and do not classify it correctly, monetizing from this process.By stopping these parallel flows, we could close a large part of the gap with the rest of Europe."

For smaller electronic waste the problem lies in dispersion.This is the case of cell phones or portable devices, which in some cases end up in undifferentiated waste collection.To deal with these problems - parallel flows and dispersion - companies in the recycling sector propose two solutions.«The first path, never practiced until now, is to increase controls.Anyone who does not assign the right code to a refusal, and does so on purpose, is committing a crime", recalls Longoni.The second solution, according to the director of the WEEE Coordination Centre, is to invest in raising citizens' awareness:«The more aware consumers become, the greater the probability that waste will be disposed of correctly.This activity is the responsibility of the regulations of the municipalities and companies that manage the collection."

The European push for battery recycling

Together with WEEE there is another group of waste rich in critical raw materials:batteries and accumulators.Here too the situation is similar:Italian data is below the European average and the problems are above all in the collection phase.«From an efficiency point of view, Italian plants are among the first in the world.As they say in some areas of Italy, we manage to draw blood from turnips", underlines Luca Tepsich, general secretary of the National Coordination Center for Batteries and Accumulators (Cdcnpa).The acronym "batteries and accumulators" actually distinguishes three types of waste:portable batteries, vehicle starting batteries and industrial batteries.To date, European standards provide constraints only for portable batteries:the minimum collection rate is set at 45%, but in 2021 Italy stopped at 35%.

Apart from a few exceptions, there are no recovery systems for batteries and accumulators in Italy.«Historically we have always had plants for lead batteries, but for all other types of batteries there are no flows and they are not such as to justify a national plant.Spain, France and Germany act as collectors for all of Europe", explains Tepsich.However, things are about to change.Thanks to European funds, work is also underway in Italy on opening the first recycling plants for electric batteries.The project in the most advanced state is that of EnelX and Midac, a leading Italian company in the production of storage systems, which will build the first Italian plant for the recycling of lithium batteries.«With electric mobility, the introduction of batteries into the market is growing exponentially and in 10/15 years they will have to be disposed of – underlines Tepsich -.The logic is this:create the systems now to be ready."