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The initiative will bring to the facilities of the technology park several collection points for waste electrical and electronic equipment available to all workers.
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The campaign is registered in the European Week for Waste Prevention, which takes place between 20 and 28 November.
The fourth #GreenLeague has arrived at Malaga TechPark by the Ecolec Foundation and was created within the European Waste Prevention Week (EWWR) 2021, which is celebrated from November 20 to 28.
On this occasion, and for the first time, the campaign reaches Malaga TechPark. Since its inception, the campaign has informed more than 10,000 workers and has collected more than 2.5 tons of WEEE. The director of institutional relations, marketing and communication of the Ecolec Foundation, Rafael Serrano, has pointed out that “for us it is very motivating to see how both private and public organizations are involved year after year in the campaign and that in 2021 the number has doubled of companies and practically tripled the number of collection points: it makes us see that the recycling of WEEE matters”.
22 institutions will have 80 collection points from this week until the conclusion of the Christmas campaign, dates on which a high volume of WEEE is collected coinciding with dates such as Black Friday, Christmas or the three wise men. In 2021, in addition to Malaga Tech Park, the #GreenLeague will have companies from up to four regions: Andalusia, Catalonia, Extremadura and Navarra. Some of these are the Seville City Council through its municipal companies (Emasesa, Lipasa and Tussam); the CSIC Delegation in Andalusia and Extremadura through the House of Science, the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS); the Andalusian Center for Development Biology (CABD) and the Archeology Institute of Mérida (IAM); the Cartuja Science and Technology Park through the Marie Curie technoincubator and the Italian Pavilion; the Huelva City Council through its municipal companies (Aguas de Huelva, EMTUSA and Emlicodemsa); the Marbella Town Hall; Contursa; DCOOP; Endesa; the Real Betis Foundation; Marbella Town Hall and Hubside Store.
The #GreenLeague campaig
With the #GreenLeague initiative, the Ecolec Foundation aims to highlight the involvement of these companies and institutions, workers and concerned citizens, and the importance of the correct management of those small electrical and electronic devices that have been left unusable, both at home and in the centers of work, and that they must be deposited in the suitable places.
In this sense, each work center will have a specific online training attended by an environmental educator who will inform workers about the initiative and how they can participate together with their company or entity. In addition, drawers will be installed to collect small waste electrical and electronic equipment so that workers can deposit useless utensils during the campaign.
The work centers will have informative material on the campaign and their participation in it. The initiative has the website www.greenleague.es, where information is provided on the campaign, as well as the location of the WEEE collection points that each center will have.
The #GreenLeague is one of the initiatives that make up the #GO communication strategy of Fundación ECOLEC; Through the latter, ECOLEC aims to address effectively and efficiently all the agents involved in the product life cycle (manufacturers, distributors, consumers, etc.) and to build a coherent and powerful account that allows to inform, raise awareness and make known that well-managed WEEE is a resource for society.
Informative pills, video-training and collection of WEEE in the participating centers
Due to the current health crisis situation, the visit to the work centers will be replaced by the creation of small ‘information pills’ that workers will be able to consult on the campaign website, as well as online training sessions for all the companies. The WEEE collection points will be permanently throughout the campaign in different places in their respective work centers.
European Waste Prevention Week (EWWR) 2021
The European Week for Waste Prevention is an initiative that takes place between 20 and 28 November and whose objective is to promote and implement awareness-raising actions on sustainable resources and waste management for a week.
Among the objectives of the EWWR is to sensitize and raise awareness in society about prevention as the first step in the waste hierarchy, the reuse of products and the recycling of materials. Likewise, it is intended to highlight the work carried out by those participants who join the initiative, in this case all those companies and institutions that participate in the #GreenLeague of the Ecolec Foundation.
WEEE management
WEEE is waste electrical and electronic equipment that has reached the end of its useful life from both private homes and professional uses. To identify them we must check if they have needed electric current or electromagnetic fields to function, intended to be used with a nominal voltage not exceeding 1,000 watts (in alternating current) and 1,500 watts (in direct current), and the necessary equipment to generate, transmit and measure such currents and fields.
The obligation to manage this waste in a separate way from the rest of the waste fractions is given by Royal Decree 110/2015, which sets out the obligations and responsibilities of all the agents involved, among which are product suppliers, merchants, administrations (local, regional and national) and users. In addition, the correct management of WEEE provides environmental benefits.
A total of 100,000 tons of WEEE per year for five consecutive years
The ECOLEC Foundation has exceeded the figure of 100,000 tons of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) correctly managed in 2021, a figure that has also made it the only collective system of extended producer responsibility (SCRAP) in Spain to exceed 100,000 annual tons of WEEE properly managed for five consecutive years.
About the ECOLEC Foundation
The ECOLEC Foundation is a non-profit organization that was created to defend the environment and has a firm commitment to sustainable development. Its objective is to efficiently organize the collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and waste batteries and accumulators, guaranteeing the extended responsibility of the incorporated producers. The organization is ISO 9001 certified for quality and ISO 14001 for the environment, is an Organizational Stakeholder of the Global Reporting Initiative and a partner of the United Nations Global Compact. For three consecutive years, 2017, 2018 and 2019, ECOLEC has been the first and only collective system of extended responsibility of the producer of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to manage more than 100 million kilograms of WEEE in accordance with RD 110/2015 in each of the aforementioned exercises.