Layman’s ReportCIP Eco-Innovation Program:

ECO/10/277256/SI2.597845

WEEE TRACEFull traceability of the management of WEEE

Project SummaryWEEE TRACE project demonstrates the value of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to ensure cradle-to-grave traceability of Waste from Electrical and Electronics Equipment (WEEE) flows in order to raise their collection levels, reduce leaks to uncontrolled channels and guarantee these wastes are conveyed to the appropriate treatment plants and minimize illegal exports or leaks to substandard treatment. Additionally, proper identification of WEEE at treatment plants facilitates the identification of hazardous substances and achieving increased reuse, recycling and recovery targets.

Project run pilot experiences in Spain and in the Czech Republic and has implemented the solution at the complete waste collection and treatment chain of Fundación Ecolec in Spain. It is intended to use these experiences to apply the solution to other European WEEE compliance schemes or to other waste streams with similar control and traceability requirements.

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Facts about WEEE TRACE Project• More than 27 million kilogrammes of WEEE managed

with WEEE TRACE traceability by Ecolec in Spain.

• Real scale implementation of traceability solution at more than 150 waste management actors in Spain, from collection points to final recycling facilities.

• 20% time reduction in administrative tasks associated to the management of documentation and reporting.

• 90% product identification through optical recognition at ASEKOL in Czech Republic.

• More than 10% reduction in CO2 emissions per kilo-gramme transported.

Project Goals

Demonstrate the value of ICT applications to guarantee traceability of wastes and/or facili-tate the identification of WEEE key features e.g. manufacturer, model, etc. to ensure proper treatment and finally achieve improve operational efficiencies.

Geographical coverage of WEEE TRACE deployment at recycling facilities

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Project backgroundAlthough it has passed more than ten years since the first European Directive on Wastes from Electronics Equipment (2002/06/EC) entered into force, it is still challenging to meet the collection and recycling objectives established in this legislation. Reason is that given the positive value of the materials present in these wastes or the high cost of recycling up to two-thirds of their volume are either diverted to substandard treatment or just illegally shipped outside Europe.

MCCTELECOM, a company specialised in Information and Communication Technologies based in Spain, had developed a technological conceptual solution to facilitate the tracing and tracking of materials and to facilitate the identification of goods. Moreover, information would be transferred and integrated in regular business management information plat-forms.

On the other side, two take-back compliance schemes with responsibilities for wastes from electrical and electronics equipment (WEEE), Fundación Ecolec in Spain and ASEKOL in the Czech Republic, were struggling to address internal challenges regarding traceability of wastes, minimise leaks to uncontrolled channels and improve operational efficiencies.

Both sides, technological solution provider and market need, shook hands and although recognized the potential validity of the technological solution, it was at the same time clear that it presented high technical, adaptation and economic risks that affected its application in practice. Support was needed to develop the pilot solutions and demonstrate its validity in commercial applications at real scale.

Project Consortium and Application of Project to Eco-innovation ProgrammeBased on the initial interest of these three initial actors, a Consortium was created with the participation of six part-ners representing the different elements of the life cycle of electrical products from design to recycling.

• MCCTELECOM (Spain) as provider of the technological solution

• FUNDACIÓN ECOLEC (Spain), collective compliance take-back scheme for WEEE with interests in ensuring

traceability, minimizing leaks and improving operational efficiency.

• ASEKOL (Czech Republic), collective compliance take-back scheme for WEEE with interests in improving ope-rational efficiency through the identification of product features that would facilitate recycling and support im-plementation of Producer’s responsibility principle

• FAGOR ELECTRODOMÉSTICOS (Spain), a supplier of whi-te goods with interest in evaluating potential solutions to track their products until their final recycling

• EMAÚS BILBAO (Spain), a logistics provider engaged in the management of WEEE.

• FANE (Spain), a recycler of WEEE.

Additionally, SIGRAUTO, the main take-back scheme in Spain for end-of-life vehicles and CARREFOUR, the large re-tail chain, joined the consortium as observers to get access to information from Project and also to share their expertise in areas related to the project.

A Project application was presented to 2010 call of CIP Eco-innovation Program managed by European Executive Agen-cy for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI, now EASME) highlighting the following specific objectives:

- Validate a surveillance and monitoring system based on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the reverse logistics associated to WEEE management in Spain.

- Develop and test a pilot solution for the identification of product key figures through optical identification.

- Improve collection levels and reduce leaks to uncontro-lled channels

- Improve operational efficiencies in take-back schemes.

- Analyse and explore potential replicability of the solution to other applications.

WEEE TRACE was among the 15% of projects finally se-lected for grant (50%) in the 2010 CIP Eco-innovation call initiating its activities in July 2011 with a 3 years duration (ending in 2014). Project was selected with high ratings in the areas of the quality of proposed actions, impact on mar-ket and replication and its European added value.

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PROJECT ACTIVITIES

1. Definition of the technical solutionAs a first phase MCCTELECOM, along with ECOLEC and ASEKOL, developed the technical solution tailoring the avai-lable technologies i.e. tracking solutions, ICT management, geo-positioning, image capturing and management, etc. to the specific needs of the Partners in the waste sector. This took approximately one year since the project was initiated.

2. Project ImplementationICT Solutions developed were different in Spain and in Czech Republic due to the particular needs of the Custo-mers in each case. In both cases, it required a pilot phase to obtain the experience needed for a subsequent application at full scale.

The experience in Spain In Spain, pilot phase was performed from June to October 2012 in the Basque Region (north of Spain) engaging two waste logistics partners and two recycling facilities covering the different type of wastes to be managed. Pilot showed that a single technological solution was not applicable and that it had to be adapted to the different recycling technologies.

Based on the findings of the pilot, a deployment plan was deployed and technological solution was implemented by phases at 154 waste management actors of Ecolec’s supply chain (19 more than initially planned). The whole project re-quired a roll-out of 18 months and when it was fully imple-

mented in April 2014 the technological infrastructure was in place at 57 recycling plants covering the whole geography of Spain. One of the key elements of the deployment was the training to waste management personnel that involved more than 230 persons.

The technological solution involved the following key features:

• Tagging of WEEE units and batches at unit level with RFiD and barcode tags.

• Tracing and tracking of waste shipments at unit level

• Image capturing and management

• Geopositioning

• Automation of the identification of incidences through alerts (e.g. leaks) , simplified reporting and integration of information in Company’s management IT platform.

Deployment of WEEE TRACE solution

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The total volume of WEEE managed during the duration of the Project under the CIP Eco-Innovation umbrella (until July 2014) was of 27.177 metric tons and the main advantages obtained were a better control of waste flows, a better mix of WEEE fractions due to the reduction of leaks in WEEE with material value, a reduction in the administrative tasks when fully in place and an improvement in operational efficiency since allowed to direct wastes to the most appropriate and competitive recycling facilities. Anyway, this is not the end of the Project and once in place will continue its operation at Ecolec take-back scheme.

The experience in Czech republicAn identification solution for WEEE using optical sen-sing methods was developed and subsequently tes-ted by ASEKOL.

This system helps ASEKOL to provide better to ma-nufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment information on what quantities and what types of WEEE were taken back and treated. It will also sup-port the application of the most appropriate method of treatment of WEEE for each type of WEEE (e.g. iidentifying the content of hazardous substances in the appliances) thanks to this solution designed and therefore will contribute to achieve higher rates of recycling and reuse of the materials contained in the appliances.

Finally, one of the goals of the system is to acquire data automatically, i.e. without unnecessary admi-nistrative burden. The system has focused and solu-tion has been adapted for TVs and computer moni-tors, both CRTs and flat ones, due to the fact that this waste stream creates approx. 80 wt. % of the WEEE taken back by ASEKOL in the Czech Republic.

The designed solution achieves the identification success rate higher than 90 %.

3. Exploration of Replication OpportunitiesParticular emphasis has been dedicated to explore replication opportunities. Although not commercial contracts have been signed with other customers during Project duration, there are on-going discus-sions with different players for WEEE and other was-te streams in Spain, France and even Brazil.

Prototype construction

Diagram of the system

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Moreover, a niche has been found in the retail sector, interested in controlling leaks during in the household collection phase. In order to address this opportunity, Ecolec is actively including this upstream expansion of the traceability solution in their offers to the large retail chains in Spain in order to enlarge their custo-mer base and increase the volumes of WEEE collec-ted as required by new legislation.

4. Communication and DisseminationA high level of attention has been given to the com-munication and dissemination efforts, whose ac-tivities and results can be summarized as follows:

- Web page (www.weee-trace.eu) in place that includes a real time counter of WEEE trea-ted and provides access to all public informa-tion related to Project. More than 2.800 diffe-rent visitors from 35 countries have accessed to the page since it was created and presenta-tions have been viewed more than 5.000 times. - A descriptive video in Spanish, English and Por-tuguese has been issued and is available at WEEE TRACE channel in youtube. WEEE TRACE videos (www.youtube.com/user/WEEETRACE) have been viewed more than 1,000 times.

- Project was highlighted by the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials in 2013 as one of the initiatives to control waste flows and improve the recovery of valuable materials.

- Project is connected to the Countering WEEE Ille-gal Trade (CWIT www.cwitproject.eu) project led by Interpol and has participated at their meeting in Seville in June 2014. Additionally, discussions have been held with the Basel Convention initiative in Asia that aims to reduce illegal shipments of e-Wastes to Asia.

- A project Workshop was organized in June 2014 in Madrid with the participation of 62 persons. Satis-faction of participants exceeded 88% for each of the aspects analyzed.

- A WEEE TRACE group is active in LinkedIn with more than 150 members and 75 discussions so far.

- More than 20 public presentations of Project have been made in different forums to different audien-ces in Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland and even in Brazil and United States.

Project benefits and Impacts- Increase in waste collection and better management of wastes. Reduction of leaks of wastes to uncontrolled channels.

- Full traceability of waste flows.- Improvement of operational efficiency in waste management.

- Improvement in CO2 efficiency in transport.- Reduction of administrative workload associated to information management.

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In case you need more information, feel free to send a message to info@weee-trace.eu or contact Project Coordinator

Mr. Josu Rollón (jrollon@mcctelecom.es)