The environmental association Zero today demanded greater intervention from the Government in the waste sector, given the “terrible performance of management entities”.
On the occasion of International Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Day, which is celebrated today, ZERO criticized the country's delay in this area, according to the most recent data.
In 2021, the recycling rate of this waste was 14,5%, equal to the value from 2020, when the legal target was 65%.
“The entities in question (Electrão, ERP and E-Cycle) only collected 29 thousand tons of this waste in 2021, when their licenses required them to reach a quantity of 130 thousand tons”, accuse the environmentalists, remembering that these managing entities are financed by the companies that place this equipment on the market.
This amount aims to support the “collection and adequate treatment of these equipment when they reach the end of their life”, but there has been a “systematic non-compliance that has led to serious environmental problems”, highlighted Zero.
Issues such as the “release of gases from refrigerators into the atmosphere with the consequent destruction of the ozone layer and the increase in atmospheric temperature, the dissemination of mercury into the environment from fluorescent lamps, or even the release of various persistent organic pollutants existing in several of these pieces of equipment”, are some of these problems.
Quoted in the statement, the director of Zero Rui Berkemeier considers that there is an “imminent collapse of the management system” for this waste, because the law provides for insignificant penalties for non-compliance with the management entities' licenses.
According to environmentalists, “for each ton of non-compliance with their targets, management entities have to pay a Waste Management Fee (TGR) worth €7,5, when the cost of collecting and treating a ton of certain types of WEEE can be several hundred euros.”
Therefore, it compensates the management entities for not complying with their legal obligations, considers Zero, which also warns about the problem of used refrigerators.
“Refrigerator dealers are required by law to collect old refrigerators when they deliver new ones”, but this only happens in less than 30% of cases and “there has been no political will to carry out a real inspection of these illegalities” .
With regard to the rest of the electrical waste management system, Portugal has legislation in which companies that place products on the market have to adhere to and pay a management entity, which will finance the collection and treatment of this equipment when it reaches the his end of life.
However, these values have been decreasing “in view of the needs of management entities, currently corresponding to around 25% of the amount needed for management entities to fulfill their legal obligations”, highlighted Zero.
In this sense, environmentalists also ask the government to “quickly resolve this situation, which has been going on for several years, compromising the financial sustainability” of the sector.
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