Comes to life Erion, the first multi-system for the management of all waste associated with electronic products: household and professional WEEE, batteries and accumulators, packaging.
Ecodom and Remedia are merging to form the largest Italian System of Extended Responsibility of Producers, who can count on a single partner for the management of their waste and the valorisation of the raw materials composing it.
Rome, 16 September 2020 – Ecodom and Remedia, the two leading consortia for the management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Waste Batteries and Accumulators (WBA), pooled their experience to form Erion, the first multi-system able to offer Producers a full range of service for the management of all waste associated with electronic products: Household and Professional WEEE, Batteries and Accumulators, Packaging.
The Erion System comprises 4 non-profit Collective Schemes providing regulatory compliance services with transversal key competences: Erion Professional, Erion WEEE, Erion Energy and Erion Packaging.
“Erion becomes the ally capable of supporting Producers not only in meeting their regulatory obligations, but also in the implementation of strategic initiatives and projects to develop innovative solutions and circular business models” says Giorgio Arienti, Erion Co-General Manager. “With a quota equal to 70% of all household WEEE managed in Italy each year, Erion also stand as the reference point both as regards the systemic dialogue with institutions and in terms of a more harmonious development of the entire recycling industry.“
The volume of professional EEE placed on the Italian market is estimated at around 300 thousand tons, with a current collection rate below 10%, against a regulatory target of 65%. For this reason, in addition to Erion WEEE dedicated to the management of household WEEE, the new System will have a collective scheme entirely dedicated to professional WEEE (Erion Professional) to help bridge the gap generated by the low collection rates of EEE placed on the market with an innovative and more incisive approach aimed at stimulating a market that, in Italy, has until now remained dormant.
In 2019, almost 11 thousand tons of portable batteries and accumulators were collected in Italy, equal to about 43% of the total volume placed on the market, amounting to over 25 thousand tons, while in the case of industrial and automotive accumulators, about 176 thousand tons were collected compared to the 317 thousand tons placed on the market (source: National Batteries and Accumulators Coordination Centre-CDCNPA-2019). However, with the fast and exponential spreading of consumer electronics, electric mobility and renewable energy, there will be more and more exhausted accumulators to be managed for recovering metals such as cobalt, silver, lithium and zinc, and avoid releasing into the atmosphere toxic substances such as mercury and chrome.
For this reason, the need arose to create Erion Energy, the collective scheme dedicated to Waste Batteries and Accumulators, including specific industry sectors such as those that, in the automotive industry, are represented by electric and hybrid cars.
Not only WEEE and WBA, but also packaging waste. The Extended Responsibility of Producers covers also the packaging that contains their equipment, whose disposal is now entrusted to installers or retailers. Erion Packaging is a collective scheme created and managed by Producers for making more efficient the current packaging management chain and intercept streams that do not currently pass through the municipal collection points. Erion Packaging will become operational at the end of the accreditation process currently underway at the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea.
“Erion” declares Danilo Bonato, Erion Co-General Manager “takes origin from the idea of our Producers to introduce in Italy a modern and authoritative extended responsibility system, capable of renewing the technological waste management system, whose performance is slowed down by legislative deficiencies and lack of a strong strategic vision. The merger of Ecodom and Remedia will provide our country with an organization of excellence in the field of regulatory compliance, with an important European position and an extraordinary team of professionals, able to actively contribute to the protection of the environment and the transition to the circular economy“.
In 2019, the two consortia managed 300,000 tons of waste, equal to the weight of 837 Airbuses A380, of which almost 240,000 tons of household WEEE, equal to the weight of 529 high-speed Freccia rossa 1000 trains with 8 carriages. From household WEEE were recycled 122,026 tons of iron equal to 16 Eiffel Towers, 31,718 tons of plastic equal to 12,687,200 garden chairs, 4,767 tons of aluminium equal to 5,621,462 moka coffee machines, 6,804 tons of copper equal to the weight of 74 Statues of Liberty, 19,015 tons of cement and 25,396 tons of glass.
The proper treatment of this type of waste has allowed to save 354.7 million kWh of electricity, equal to the annual electricity consumption of a city with over 320 thousand inhabitants and avoid the release of 1,476,031 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to zeroing the emissions generated by the existing vehicles of the entire Milan province for a 54 days period.
ERION COMPLIANCE ORGANIZATION LLC – Limited Liability Cooperative Company – Via A. Scarsellini, 14 – 20161 Milan
VAT/Tax Code/ Milan Registry of Businesses 11344540965
Nominal capital euros 15.000
