65 delegates from 18 lighting WEEE compliance schemes, representatives of lighting producers, and stakeholders met for the EucoLight annual conference in Bucharest hosted by the Romanian EucoLight member, Recolamp, on 10-12 May. This year, the conference was also available online for the members and speakers who could not make it to Romania. High on the agenda were policies for WEEE, circularity and sustainability, operations and treatment, marketing/communication, perspectives from the host country (Romania), the EPR model-practical experiences from stakeholders, and best practice sharing from EucoLight members.
In addition to presentations by EucoLight members and staff, the delegates were presented with insights from external speakers; Maria Banti (European Commission), Fabrizio Longoni (Coordination Centre for the Management of WEEE in Italy), Emmanuel Katrakis (EuRIC), Liliana Nechita (Federation of Intercommunity Development), Eric Ruyters (Eucobat), Monika Romenska (EXPRA), Alexander Goldberg (EWRN), Dominic Henry (Producer Register Limited), Eike Klein (Amazon), Marius Costache (Green WEEE), Roxana Suciu (KPMG) and Jan Clyncke (PV Cycle).
EU Policies impacting end-of-life lighting products – delegates were updated on several regulatory initiatives arising from the European Green Deal impacting producers, their compliance take-back schemes and recyclers alike. An on-going key development is the current evaluation of the WEEE Directive, which may lead to the revision of the current EU legislation, as explained by the European Commission representative.
Recyclers also presented their views as to whether the numerous regulatory initiatives were building up the right framework for sustainability and circularity.
Experience from stakeholders with regards to the extended producer responsibility model (EPR) – EucoLight invited several stakeholders to share their views about to-be-adopted EU specific EPR legislation such as batteries, packaging and packaging waste, and other key stakeholders in the field of EPR for WEEE, as well as national registers and online marketplaces, to discuss points of attention in the future legislation. The need for better harmonisation of the rules and greater clarity of some definitions among the Member States has emerged from many angles, to facilitate greater participation and compliance for the future.
Operational topics in the field of collection and logistics – members reported about sorting experiences with lamps including LEDs, the handling of special purpose lamps in EucoLight member countries, final destinations of fractions and smart containers.
Best practice sharing – representatives from Ambilamp (Spain), Ecolamp (Italy), Ecosystem (France), Ekogaisma (Estonia), Electrão (Portugal), Lightcycle (Germany), and Recolamp (Romania) presented their experience in several fields at country level e.g., successful lamps collection campaigns, notification of transboundary shipments of waste, tax regime of eco-contributions and demands for recyclability labels on products.
Circular economy and sustainability reporting -Mr. Gied van Hoorn from LightRec Nederland, and a EucoLight Board member, presented the preliminary results of an internal EucoLight inventory on circular economy. Several Member States have already adopted legislation on circular economy impacting electronic products, including lighting. Best practices are being implemented on the ground in various Member States. Practical challenges to further develop reuse, repair, and remanufacturing of lighting fixtures were identified.
Ms. Roxana Suciu from KPMG also presented the new EU sustainability reporting obligations applicable to companies because of the Green Deal.
Evolution of marketing – marketing has evolved greatly over the last decade due to unimaginable new tools that have changed the way of thinking about communication, the targets of marketing campaigns and the way of interacting with them. EucoLight Marketing and Communication working group reviewed these evolutions, based on member’s experiences, putting them in the context of the increased awareness on proper collection and recycling habits without neglecting a look to the future and possible further evolutions, for example the use of artificial intelligence to support increasingly effective and personalized communication.
Concluding remark – closing the conference, Fabrizio D’Amico, EucoLight Chairman, emphasised our association’s key priority for the future years, supported and confirmed by the members, to actively contribute to the revision of the WEEE Directive.
Election of the Board
The conference also held the EucoLight General Assembly, which elected a new Board of Directors. Elected Board members were Mr. Fabrizio D’Amico from Ecolamp (Italy) who was confirmed as EucoLight Chairman, Mr. Gied van Hoorn from LightRec Nederland (The Netherlands), Treasurer, Mr. Juan Carlos Enrique from Ambilamp (Spain), Vice-Chairman, and Ms. Ourania Georgoustsakou from LightingEurope (Belgium), member of the Board. The General Assembly also warmly thanked two former Board members, who did not stand for re-election, as their mandate had expired; Mr. Stephan Riemann from Lightcycle (Germany), and Mr. Tomas Rychetsky from Ekolamp s.r.o (Czech Republic) and Ekolamp Slovakia (Slovakia).
Should you want to know more about EucoLight and its publications, please visit the EucoLight website.
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About EucoLight:
EucoLight is The European association of collection and recycling organisations for WEEE lamps and lighting. On behalf of its members, EucoLight engages with everything related to the WEEE Directive, legislations and standards affecting the collection and recycling of WEEE lighting. Its members collect and recycle, in aggregate, 80% of the lamp waste collected in the 18 countries in which they operate. EucoLight is the voice of European WEEE compliance schemes specialised in managing the collection and recycling of WEEE lighting; working to make the circular economy a reality for lighting products. EucoLight has 18 PRO members: AMBILAMP (Spain); Appliances Recycling SA (Greece); Ecolamp (Italy); Ecosystem (France); ESS-Ringlus (Estonia); Ekolamp s.r.o. (Czech Republic); Ekolamp Slovakia (Slovakia); Electrão (Portugal); Electro-Coord (Hungary); ElektroEko (Poland); Elretur (Denmark); FLIP (Finland); Lightcycle (Germany); LightRec (Netherlands); Recolamp (Romania); Recupel (Belgium); UFH (Austria), ZEOS (Slovenia) and one affiliate member, LightingEurope. Founded mid-2015, EucoLight has quickly embarked into constructive dialogue with relevant stakeholders to provide expertise in the field of management and treatment of WEEE lighting and to promote the positive role of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes on the environment and society.
For more information, visit the EucoLight website, follow EucoLight on Twitter and LinkedIn, or contact the Secretary General, Marc Guiraud (marc.guiraud@eucolight.org).
You can download the press release here
