The WEEE Forum, an international association of e-waste collection schemes, said that the occasion was celebrated in 30 different countries worldwide with around 50 organisations being engaged by the initiative. A wide range of events from online campaigns to temporary city centre collection points helped raise the public profile of e-waste and encouraged consumers and businesses to correctly dispose of their e-waste.
Many different events were held as part of International E-Waste Day. In New Delhi, India, for example, a conference, E-waste management: Yesterday, today and tomorrow, was held to discuss the challenges and opportunities for e-waste recycling. In Poland, e-waste scheme, ElektroEko, set up street collection points in Warsaw to promote the correct disposal of household e-waste and to give people the opportunity to dispose of waste items. And in Ireland, WEEE Ireland ran a campaign in schools urging people to recycle their old mobile phones by means of a pilot data destruction project.
Jan Vlak, the President of the WEEE Forum and the Managing Director of Wecycle said, “International E-Waste Day gave us a great opportunity to engage with consumers and communicate that e-waste should be disposed of using the correct channels.” He continued, “The messages of our members were well received and we are optimistic that the day has contributed to influence people’s behaviour.”
Pascal Leroy, Secretary General of the WEEE Forum, added, “We are so pleased with the participation and high profile of the day. Having so many countries involved and so many different events organised surpassed our expectations and struck a positive note everywhere International E-Waste Day was celebrated.”
Great, I’m really glad that people are finally starting to pay more attention to the recycling process. It’s so important to preserve our environment