The environmental association Zero lamented this Thursday the last position of Portugal within the European Union (EU) in the treatment of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), citing the most recent data from Eurostat.
According to Eurostat, in the percentage of WEEE recycling, Portugal ranked worst in 2020, with just over 30% (Cyprus and Romania without data), followed by Italy, with over 35%. Bulgaria had a percentage above 90% and the EU average was 45%.
This debacle was foreseeable, given the total incapacity and lack of political will of the various heads of the Ministry of the Environment, with special emphasis on the negative contribution of the former Minister of the Environment (João Pedro Matos Fernandes) who, over more than More than six years ago and despite countless warnings from Zero and other organizations, it never took any kind of initiative to improve the country’s performance in this area,” Zero accuses in a statement released this Thursday.
Taking into account the official data and the “fact” of in 2021 and this year “There have been no significant positive developments” On the collection of WEEE, the association requested this Thursday a meeting with the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, with the aim of raising awareness of the need to apply measures to reverse “the chaos that exists in the management of WEEE in Portugal”. .
Zero considers that there is underfinancing of the WEEE management system, because the amounts that companies that place equipment on the market pay to WEEE management entities when the equipment becomes waste are very low.
And he also criticizes what he considers the “low penalty for non-compliance with the objectives of WEEE management entities”, which makes it worth not complying with the law. And he gives an example: it is as if the fine for not paying the toll on the 25 de Abril Bridge was 20 cents when the amount of the toll is one euro and ninety cents.
Another problem that Zero points out is that The merchants do not collect the old refrigerators when they deliver a new one, breaking the law, since the collection rate is around 30%. And the association adds that in the refrigerators collected, the work is done by the carriers who sell them to scrap dealers instead of sending them to the correct destination, which would prevent the release of refrigerant gases into the atmosphere, which cause the greenhouse effect.
The association believes there must be effective supervision, something the Ministry of the Environment has not invested in, just as it has not invested in any other Zero proposal.
Recalling that in 2018 the deposit/return system for plastic, glass and metal beverage containers was created, Zero defends that electrical and electronic equipment should have an identical system, in which citizens who separate this waste are compensated of the deposit paid initially when acquiring the product.
Source: Observadora
