Electrical and electronic waste action

Electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) collection project in Cluj-Napoca, planned in 2010 by the Romanian Association for Recycling (RoRec), in collaboration with Umbrela Verde (The Green Umbrella).

WEEE recycling promotion project in Timisoara, planned in 2011 by NGO Recolamp (RO), in partnership with NGO Electro-Coord (HU).

As a EU member state, Romania has the obligation to collect and recycle 80000 tonnes of WEEE annually.

Collection actions were initiated in 2007, the first of which was the National campaign of WEEE collection, also known as “The great clearance”. The action envisaged that citizens would take their broken devices out in front of their homes, so that salubrity companies could then collect and ship them to collection centres, [54] after which the waste would be transferred to authorized companies before it eventually reached the recycling centres. Both small and large household appliances are collected (e.g. toasters, irons, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, fridges), tools, lighting equipment, electronic and IT devices, toys.

Due to the novelty of the project, the actions undergone in the autumn of 2007 had limited success. The second action, planned for April 19th 2008, had notable results.

The third WEEE collection campaign was planned for October 4th 2008, when more than 400 t of waste were collected. Due to the small amount of collected waste, other campaigns followed – the 4th took place on November 1st, and the 5th on December 6th 2008. In addition to these actions, importers and producers of electronics could be required to collect WEEE that would correspond to 20% of the total quantity of EEE they sell/produce. To this end, companies could offer purchase bonuses when clients bring in their old household appliances.

A Romanian-Hungarian transborder cooperation project aims to recycle burnt lighting equipment waste from Timis and Arad, and Hajdu-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg counties. The project foresees placing specialized containers for the collection of lightbulbs and fluorescent tubes, as well as building a recycling centre for this type of waste.