FULL STEAM AHEAD IN THE RETURN TO AWARENESS-RAISING INITIATIVES
Jordi Julián |Business Strategy and Development Manager
Jordi Julián |Business Strategy and Development Manager
We intensified our activities around the Ecoinstallers programme in 2021. This initiative aims to raise awareness among installation professionals of the importance of properly uninstalling air conditioning equipment and its waste management, and providing them with tailor-made solutions to that end.
After face-to-face activities which had been suspended during the previous year due to the Covid-19 pandemic returned to normal, the
Ecoinstallers programme resumed its physical presence starting in October at major events including the Andalusian Installers Congress and Fair (COFIAN) in Seville, the Installation Companies and New Technologies Exhibition and Forum (EFINTEC) held in Barcelona, and the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration trade fair held in Madrid.
We also continued to carry out information and training activities for installation companies in the air conditioning and refrigeration sector, in partnership with leading associations including Agremia, FEGiCAT, Epyme and ASOFRÍO.
More information is available at www.ecoinstaladores.com.
With Anthesis Lavola, Electrorecycling and Solidança, and on behalf of the Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) that are
members of OfiRaee, in December we participated in the technical seminar to exchange experiences on the management of WEEE organised by the Advisory and Support Service for Recycling Centres (ASDE) of Barcelona Provincial Council, which was held in the town of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia near Barcelona.
The activity took place as part of the experience exchange sessions and training courses for professionals from municipal waste management facilities and recycling centres, and educational resources for schools interested in waste management organised by the ASDE.
In November, the second ‘Madrid tiene su punto’ (Madrid has points) campaign was launched in the streets of Madrid. Coinciding with Black Friday, it aimed to inform the public about the importance of the correct use of fixed, mobile and local recycling points, as well as the correct recycling of WEEE through these municipal facilities.
The initiative was organised by Madrid City Council in partnership with most of the PROs that operate in the capital, and took the form of 21 informative events with a physical presence in all the districts of the city. It was accompanied by an extensive communication campaign in the newspapers, radio, digital media and social media.
The informative events were attended by an environmental expert who emphasised the importance of recycling and waste separation, and a facilitator to capture the public’s attention and attract people to the stand.
To mark the European Week for Waste Reduction and with the objective of preventing waste generation, we participated in organising the Repair Café held in Zaragoza in November. This activity was carried out within the framework of the CECI Interreg Europe project in which the General Directorate of Climate Change and Environmental Education of the Government of Aragon are involved as a partner.
The CECI (Citizen Involvement in Circular Economy) activities are aimed at involving citizens as an essential lever in the implementation of the circular economy by means of the exchange and dissemination of experiences and good practices, in
order to redirect a linear economy model towards a circular one.
With the aim of preventing the generation of new waste, citizens were able to take all their electrical and electronic devices that were not working to the Repair Café, which tried to repair them with the help of volunteers with technical knowledge in this field.
After touring more than twenty towns in the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Alicante in January and February, the ‘Recicla tus aparatos’ (Recycle your devices) campaign resumed its journey in October to raise awareness among the citizens of the Valencian Community about the importance of correct recycling of WEEE and to inform them of the channels available to them to do so.
The initiative, organised by the Government of the Valencian Community in partnership with the PROs that work in the region,
involved a mobile recycling point that visited fifteen towns in October and November, so that members of the public could hand in their waste and learn more about the importance of correct recycling.
To encourage participation, raffles were held on the street among all the participants, with various electrical and electronic products
as prizes, and a contest was organised through social media in which the participants could win a tablet.
With the aim of promoting the selective collection of WEEE, the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC) launched the ‘Recicla’m com em mereixo’ (Recycle me the way I deserve) communication campaign in October, in partnership with local organisations and Barcelona
Provincial Council and funding from the PROs operating in Catalonia.
The aim of the initiative, which continued until mid-December, was to inform consumers about their right to return electrical and electronic devices that they no longer use, or which have not been repaired, to points of sale when they acquire a new device.
The campaign particularly highlighted devices purchased online, where the idea that old devices can be delivered to the home delivery
service when a new device is delivered has not yet been assimilated.
As part of the activities taking place to mark Telefónica International Volunteer Day on 24 September, the Fundación Telefónica organised an environmental awareness activity for the company’s workers in partnership with Ecotic.
The objective was to foster the responsible use of technology and the correct management of its waste. Selective collection containers were installed at the offices of the Fundación Telefónica, where workers were able to deposit commonly used devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and other small appliances.
The Telefónica International Volunteer Day is an event that aims to highlight the enormous work and commitment undertaken by volunteers throughout the year, emphasising the role of technology as a tool to create a better world and focusing on aspects including education, the digital divide, childhood, social inclusion, the environment, health, employability and entrepreneurship.
June saw the eighth edition of ‘Comparte y Recicla’ (Share and Recycle), the largest charity collection of toys in Spain, which Ecotic has worked with since it began. The campaign is organised by the Fundación Crecer Jugando in partnership with the Grupo Mediaset and the Fundación SEUR, and enables donations of toys from families from all over Spain through all the stores of the El Corte Inglés group
and the stores in the Toys’R’Us chain.
A total of 131 tonnes of toys were collected, which after being prepared for reuse at the ILADE Special Employment Centre, led to 149 donations to organisations and NGOs all over Spain. A total of 34,000 toys were sent, which will be able to enjoy a new life with more than 27,000 disadvantaged girls and boys.
At Ecotic we were responsible for the correct recycling of more than 27 tonnes of electronic toys, which means we prevented the emission of 68 tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of the amount that could be absorbed by 1.36 hectares of pine trees over the course of a year.
After the success of previous editions, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency and Ecological Transition of the Government of the Valencian Community, in partnership with the PRO, launched the third edition of the RAEECCIONA campaign in February. Its objective was to engage and raise awareness among everyone involved in the life cycle of WEEE, from distributors and businesses to the general public.
RAEECCIONA was aimed at 250 points of sale of electrical appliances, and offered training and incentives such as quality seals for distributors for their good WEEE management, and a special draw with two prizes of 500 Euros for customers at the points of sale who brought WEEE to their establishment, redeemable at the same point of sale.
Several draws also took place for the campaign’s followers on social media, for a total of 16 prizes of 100 Euros. These could be exchanged at the establishments participating in the three editions of the initiative.