GreenWEEE is one of the most important companies specialized in recycling electric and electronic waste in Romania, as well as Europe. Since 2009, the company had a major impact when it comes to recycling and recovering raw materials that are essential for the manufacturing of new devices.

Earlier this year we've been to the opening of the company's third facility that will recycle electronic and electronic devices in Buzau. The investment required to build and start operations was evaluated at 75 million RON, extending GreenWEEE's recycling capacity by 40%. You can read more about this subject here.

The challenges of recycling e-waste

Thanks to the investments made by the company throughout the years, the recycling capacity grew by three times and reached 140.000 tons of e-waste per year and to achieve this goal, the company's experts also implemented more efficient recycling processes. Even though technological and logistic progresses have been made to make e-waste recycling more efficient, some challenges continue to stick around in the industry.

"As electronic devices become more sophisticated and complex, their recycling somehow becomes more difficult to achieve. Devices are built so that they take up less space, so they can be more integrated and efficient, but this brings difficulties in disassembly and separating the valuable components", GreenWEEE officials told us.

One example in this regard can be the devices that contains hardly-accessible batteries, that require very specific opening processes, as well as soldered components, that makes it difficult to remove them from the assembly and can lead to damaging other parts. This is why the company is required to invest in new machinery and processes for recycling, to facilitate the recovery of raw materials, but this is ultimately what drives recycling costs up, as well.

Bu as we said it in the past, for recycling to take place, we first need to collect the waste itself and this, say GreenWEEE representatives, is one of the biggest challenges Romania faces in this industry.

"We have recycling installations that can allow Romania to achieve its collection targets, but we need to have raw materials that we can recycle. To increase this rate, we need to expand on the collection infrastructure, to promote public-private partnerships, as well as to develop better educational programs", they added.

Why is Romania at the bottom of Europe's e-waste recyclers

This is also why Romania sits at the bottom of the ranking of European countries that send e-waste to recyclers, with 4.75 kilograms per capita. Alongside us are countries like Cyprus, with 3.96 kilograms per capita, Portugal, with 5.18 kilograms per capita and Greece, with 5.98 kilograms per capita.

At the other end of the spectrum sit states like Austria, Finland and France, which send in for recycling 15.46, 14.68 and 14.67 kilograms of electronics waste per person.

Instead, Romanians keep around their household around 8 kilograms worth of devices that are used or defective, which could be repurposed for the production of brand-new devices. Even though the rate of collection and recycling grew in our country, as well, in recent years, it's important to invest in a better collection infrastructure, as well as in the education of the public, GreenWEEE representatives believe.

They also say that, by 2030, the amount of e-waste is projected to reach an approximate 82 million tons per year, making it essential to raise collecting and recycling efforts so that we can prevent the negative impact on the planet.

In its 13 years of activity, GreenWEEE was able to save the equivalent of 8 million tons of CO2 by reprocessing electronic waste devices. Some of the more common types of devices that the company recycles are refrigerators and washing machines.

The continuous flow of these appliances is caused by the advancements in energy and resource efficiency, which entice users to upgrade their gear. Also important in this habit is the coupons given by the stores, which will pay a certain amount in exchange for the old device.

IT&C devices, such as computers, laptops and monitors, are also among the popular devices that the company reprocesses. Surprisingly, despite not being sold for a number of years at this point, CRT monitors are still coming in GreenWEEE's recycling facilities quite often, as "they are still present in a number of households and offices in Romania".

We talked before about the importance of recycling refrigerators and washing machines in our series called "How it's recycled" and you can read about both in detail here and here.

What makes recycling e-waste difficult

Smartphones and smart devices are among some of the more difficult products that the company has to recycle, because their design isn't standardized, which leads to a chaotic disassembly and recycling process from one model to another.

To facilitate their recycling, manufacturers need to adopt a design that can facilitate disassembly and recycling, simplifying the process of recovering important raw materials, GreenWEEE believes.

So far, the company invested 40 million euros in its three facilities located in Romania, where it recycles these devices and at the same time, it is the only operator from our country that respects the European recycling standard CENECEL - WEEELABEX.

Through the recycling processes implemented so far, the company was able to achieve an almost 98% recovering rate for the recycled materials. Among these are precious materials, plastic, iron, aluminum and glass, which are then reintroduced in the economy, reducing the dependency on natural resources.

These are not the only measures that the company implemented for a cleaner environment. Thus, GreenWEEE officials told Green Start-Up that "we use solar panels to heat the water used in our locations, contributing a reduction of energy use through renewables. At the same time, for over 15 years, we implemented a car-sharing program for our employees, given that we operate in a fairly remote area. This measure helped us reduce the CO2 footprint associated with daily commutes."

How GreenWEEE contributes to a cleaner environment in the future

The company will continue to grow its e-waste recycling capacities in the future, but at the same time, it looks to close partnerships with public institutions, as well as players from other industries, to grow collection rate, as well as to contribute to the education of the public regarding the importance of recycling.

In the long run, GreenWEEE looks to continue to innovate, for example through the development and implementation of projects such as GRINNER.

"This is a work-in-progress for two years at this point, through which we are developing a technology that will enables us to detect the batteries within electronic devices with the help of AI and X-Ray. We will implement the system in November in our Buzau facility, conducting the first tests. This innovation will enable us to make recycling more efficient and to be more sustainable in our operations, ensuring a more positive impact for the environment and the local communities", GreenWEEE officials told us.