Maikii is a company that imports and produces technology. It is therefore essential for us to ask ourselves the question: how are our accessories disposed of when their life cycle ends?
For us it is important that those who receive a Maikii gadget know how to dispose of it in a sustainable way when it will no longer be usable.
WEEE: what are they?
Our gadgets are part of those products called EEE, the Electrical and Electronic Equipment that need electricity or electromagnetic fields to operate. Once they become waste, these are called WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).
Here is a short video of the WEEE Coordination Centre explaining what they are.
The amount of WEEE that every Italian citizen throws away reaches 13 kg/year, which on the whole become around 800,000 t/year. Properly disposing of these quantities has a positive impact on the environment. To do this, you need to know how WEEE is classified and the procedures for sustainable disposal.
The different types of WEEE
The classification of the various EEE types, required by the European Directive 2012/19/EC and by the Leg. Decree 49/2014, was updated in 2018. This change reduces the categories and makes them more open to include any type of device that was previously excluded from the categorisation and application of the legislation.
Let’s take a look at them together:
- Equipment for temperature exchange (refrigerators, radiators, air conditioners …)
- Screens, monitors and equipment with surface screens greater than 100 cm2
- Lamps
- Large equipment (with at least one external dimension greater than 50 cm);
- Small equipment (with no external dimension greater than 50 cm);
- Small computer and telecommunications equipment (with no external dimension greater than 50 cm).
Maikii and WEEE disposal
The disposal of this type of waste is regulated by specific legislation , which we at Maikii undertake to respect and follow: we are talking about the European Directive 2002/96/EC, introduced in Italy with the Legislative Decree 151/05, and Directive 2012/19/EU, in Italy with Legislative Decree 49/2014.
Proper disposal transforms this waste into a source of raw materials thanks to the recovery and recycling of iron, plastic, glass, aluminium and precious metals. Proper management of a WEEE requires that the polluting substances present in the equipment, necessary for its operation, are disposed of in a safe manner, so as to prevent damage to the environment.
Advice for proper disposal
We care that Maikii customers know how to handle them when their gadgets become waste. Here are some tips for sustainable disposal:
- Do not throw the WEEE as non-recyclable waste
- Do not leave them in the environment
- Bring your domestic WEEE to the special municipal centre (ecological island)
- For a cumbersome domestic WEEE, ask your municipality for collection at home
- In the case of purchasing an appliance, you have the right to deliver the old one to the shopkeeper for free (“One against One” collection)
- You can deliver your small WEEE (maximum size less than 25cm) free of charge in a retailer store (which is larger than 400sqm) even when you purchase nothing (“One against Zero” collection)
- The producers, through their consortia or collective systems, must collect the WEEE both from the collection centres and from the retailers and transport them to the treatment plants where the raw materials will be recovered and the toxic substances disposed of
For more information you can consult the guide created by Cittadinanzattiva in collaboration with ECODOM, the first Italian Consortium for the recovery and recycling of household appliances.
Alternatively you can read the guide created by the Unione Nazionale Consumatori (National Consumers Organisation).
On average in Italy only 3 out of 10 people know what and how to dispose of WEEE. But after this article, 100% of Maikii customers will know it!
Now that you know how to properly dispose of old tech gadgets that you no longer use, you can think of new ones … Visiting our website!
