The waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has a major negative effect on the environment and human health if it is not managed appropriately. When this waste gets to the waste dump, it generates the pollution of the basic components of the environment: the soil, the water, the air.

“The correct and responsible management of WEEE means enhanced health for each of us, a cleaner environment and a continuous circular economy owing to the energy produced by recycling,” said Denis Makosvki, head of the Environmental Economic Mechanisms Division of the Environment Agency.

The effects of the dangerous substances from e-waste on people are diverse. The mercury causes neurological problems, the precarious development of fetuses and small children, shaking, emotional changes, insomnia and death. The chrome generates respiratory irritation and kidney disease, while the cadmium – lung disease.

The Republic of Moldova does not have capacities to process such types of waste, but there are collective systems that collect them and manage them up to their transportation to foreign authorized enterprises.

Ruslan Nercaș, executive director of the e-waste recycling association MoldRec, said WEEE collected at their company’s platform is sorted according to categories, is packed and prepared for export to Romania, to the largest factory in southeastern Europe, where it is recycled. Last year the company collected over 500 tonnes of e-waste.

All the business entities that sell electrical and electronic equipment should be responsible and create waste storage places from where the waste can be taken for recycling. “WEEE becomes dangerous when it is abandoned. There is also expired equipment that each citizen keeps at home. The attitude to such equipment should be responsible and this should not be thrown together with municipal waste, at the garbage bin, or abandoned,” said the head of the Waste and Chemicals Management Policy Division of the Ministry of Environment Svetlana Bolocan.

In the municipality of Chisinau, there are about 200 e-waste collection points. Over 1,000 collection points more will be setup by the end of the year. “It is a good practice to invest millions of lei so that we have e-waste collection points near each apartment building. The people should show interest and look for these points. For the purpose, they need to be informed about the dangers (of throwing) and the benefits (of recycling),” stated the director of MoldRec.

“The Environment Agency continuously communicates with business entities that import and sell products covered by the extended producer responsibility regime, informing about the relevant provisions and obligations, including with regard to WEEE,” said Denis Makosvki.

The Chisinau waste collection company Autosalubritate also stepped up communication so as to educate citizens on the correct management of e-waste. “We insistently ask the people to take waste electrical and electronic equipment to operators dealing with this type of waste. The large home appliances stores must have a temporary place for storing such waste. Respectively, any citizen who has waste electrical and electronic equipment can take this there, while the retailer is obliged to accept e-waste. The containers possessed by Autosalubritate are intended for recyclable waste, not yet for e-waste, medical waste, industrial waste. These types of waste must no way be buried,” explained Igor Gîrlea, Autosalubritate acting director.

The network of certified collective waste disposal systems is available on the websites of the Employers Association, the Foundation Eco Save, the Public Association Univers Ecologic. 

Since the regulations on the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment, approved by the Government Decision of March 7, 2018, took effect, five collective systems have been authorized to implement the extended producer responsibility and manage e-waste in the name of producers.