The European Commission estimates that in the EU there are millions of mobile phones, laptops and tablets whose owners no longer use them and store them at home.. Specifically, it estimates that only 5% of cell phones are reused and that there are about 700 million unused and in citizens' homes.. Aware that the recycling of these devices would be a good circular economy exercise, with benefits on employment and the recovery of critical materials, it studies how to make users hand them over, with voluntary but also perhaps mandatory measures, instead of taking it into account. home and to that end consider the possibility of offering them “bonuses” or “discounts”.

This is one of the options that the Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, presented this Monday to the European Environment Ministers, in a discussion in the Council in which this initiative has not only received any objection from the EU governments, but has been met with France's request that it later be extended to other devices, such as vacuum cleaners.

As explained by Sinkevicius, the rate of delivery of mobile phones and tablets to be reused “remains low” in the EU, where the collection of mobile phones only reaches 5% of existing ones and “there are 700 million mobile phones stored in homes “.

Delivery and reuse

The Commission wants to make the reuse of these devices an element of the Circular Economy, convinced that “it can create an enormous number of jobs for each ton of material” recovered and is studying different types of incentives to get citizens to get rid of them. .

“Vouchers, discounts,” the commissioner pointed out to the ministers. Also, the postal services of each country can be responsible for this collection, “to facilitate the task for users” and give greater visibility to these or other collection points.. It also analyzes the possibility that users can estimate the value of devices that they no longer use and that they could resell to the company from which they bought them.

In addition to facilities to encourage voluntary surrender, Sinkevicius reminded ministers that the Commission can enter into consumer policy to introduce “new requirements” so that phones and tablets can have a longer useful life.

Urban water treatment

Also at the Environment Council this Monday in Luxembourg, ministers have reached an agreement to extend to smaller cities than those now required by law to have water treatment systems and for pharmaceutical or cosmetic companies that contribute to their microcontamination contribute to a greater extent to this purification. In this way, the principle that “the polluter pays” has been imposed in a norm that will now undertake the final stretch, the negotiation with the European Parliament, for its update.

The Twenty-seven have closed their position regarding the reform of the Urban Water Treatment Directive in the Environment Council to extend the obligation to treat water to cities with an equivalent population of 1,250 inhabitants – the magnitude for calculate the potential for water pollution – elimination of biodegradable substances – by one person per day – the obligation to carry out secondary water treatment, which was now only mandatory in localities with a population equivalent of 2,000 or more.

By 2045, treatment plants in places with more than 150,000 estimated population must carry out tertiary treatment (removal of nitrogen and phosphorus), which will also be mandatory in smaller towns at risk of eutrophication (one of the main causes of contamination of lakes and reservoirs). ) but urban water that is reused for agricultural irrigation and that does not pose risks to health or the environment are exempt.. A fourth level of treatment, to eliminate micropollutants, will be mandatory in cities with an estimated population of more than 200,000 in 2045, with intermediate objectives for 2035 and 2040.

The Twenty-seven have also agreed that pharmaceutical and cosmetic producers, responsible for the micropollutants that reach urban waters, contribute to their cleaning through a system of “extended producer responsibility” to contribute to this cost.. It should apply to “any product that is marketed on the market, in any country and by any means.”

The Twenty-seven have lowered the Commission's proposal regarding the deadline for them to do so – from 2030 to 2035 – and have introduced some derogations for smaller populations and for all countries that joined the EU after 2004 – all of the East -, who will have between eight and 12 more years to comply with a law that, according to the consulting firm iWater, will particularly affect countries like Spain and Italy, with a greater number of treatment plants that, for this reason, will have to make more investments to adapt to the new law, which also provides that by 2045 all urban water treatment plants must produce the energy they themselves consume from renewable sources.