Croatia recycles 80% of electrical and electronic (EE) waste, which ranks the country at the top of European Union member-states in terms of the recycling of that sort of waste.

According to the Eurobarometer data in 2020, Croatia recycled 81.3% of EE waste, Sweden recycled 47%, Germany 38.7%, France 36.6% and Italy 32.1%. Malta was at the bottom of the ranking with 20.8% recycling of EE waste, the Croatian Fund for Environment Protection and Energy Efficiency informed Hina.

Dealing with EE waste is an important segment for reaching the targets from the circular economy action plan (CEAP) which the European Commission adopted in March 2020.

EE waste is the fastest growing waste, and recycling contributes to efforts to mitigate the climate change and to reduce greenhouse gases caused by the production of new materials, notably metals.

According to the relevant EU directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), “the minimum collection rate to be achieved annually shall be 65 % of the average weight of EEE placed on the market in the three preceding years in the Member State concerned, or alternatively 85 % of WEEE generated on the territory of that Member State.”

In 2020, in Croatia, 66,505 tonnes of such waste were placed on the country’s market, and 40,772 tonnes were collected, while 39,145 tonnes were processed, Zvonimir Majić, an official in the Fund told Hina.

Majić has said that having in mind the energy crisis and some factors impacting the purchasing power as well as the fact that state-of-the-art EE devices are lighter in weight, one can expect a small drop in the percentages reached so far by Croatia.

Electrical and electronic waste (EE waste) includes large and small household appliances, information technology (IT) and telecommunications equipment, lighting equipment (other than incandescent bulbs), electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment, medical devices (other than implants and infected products), monitoring and control instruments and automatic dispensers.