Ecodom, Italian consortium for the WEEE management, joins the operators of the sector to respond to the Coronavirus emergency by guaranteeing the functioning of the system but at a reduced rate, so as to be able to safeguard the health of all operators, in particular those involved in the WEEE transport and treatment. A necessary change, also noted by the collection data for the month of March, which show a sharp drop in the collected appliances in Italy. “Having a WEEE in the house during the emergency period – explains Giorgio Arienti, general director at Ecodom – does not present any contraindication and can help reduce the possibilities that the operators suffer the infection. It is therefore appropriate that anyone who does not have an immediate and urgent need to disposal the electronic waste avoids doing so“. The collection continues in cases of “emergency”, such as waste-saturated Collection Centers that should be emptied before closing or full of collected WEEE in “one for one” mode from the retailers who make online sales (still active). Numerous are also the difficulties that the WEEE sector is encountering due to the stop of many industrial activities, such as steel mills and foundries to which the secondary raw materials are normally destined, with a consequent risk of storage saturation of materials entering and leaving the treatment plants. Hence, the decision of the Ministry of the Environment to increase the storage limits.
