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Electronics recycling market booms

Stena/Safina deal signals rise of a nascent industry specializing in electrowaste

February 7th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/The Prague Post
Stena/Safina's plant could help Czechs recycle 40,000 metric tons (44,000 short tons) of electronic waste annually by 2009.
If you have to blame anything for the rapid price depreciation of electronic gadgets, blame Moore’s law. Postulated by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, back in the 1960s and held as gospel truth by the computing industry, the law is simple: Every two years, computing power doubles.
So, that laptop you bought back in 1996? Junk.
In the past, many people would treat their old electronics like junk, dumping that laptop — perhaps after years lingering in a dust-laced basement — into the nearest landfill, where until recently 90 percent of electronic waste was thrown.
Wired Waste
  • What: Two recycling
  • companies, Stena Metall of Sweden and Safina of the Czech Republic, will begin a
  • joint-venture in March to recycle electronic waste: TV sets, computers, clock radios, etc.
  • Why: Thanks to a European Union directive that tacked small fees onto purchases of new electronics, recycling
  • electrowaste has become big business: In 2000, the Czech Republic recycled 330 metric tons (360 short tons) of waste; by 2009, the country is expected to recycle 40,000 metric tons
But, thanks to European Union and Czech environmental legislation of the past few years that mandates the recycling of electronic waste, this habit is changing. And an entirely new and profitable industry is being born.
Safina, the largest recycler of electronic scrap in the country, is planning a new joint venture with Stena Metall, a gigantic Swedish recycler. The new company, called Stena/Safina, is expected to launch March 1 and specialize in recycling electronic waste.
“It’s an interesting time for us,” said Phär Oscar, spokesman for Stena Metall. “We have the opportunity to go to a country where a market was created overnight.”
The numbers back him up. In 2000, the sole recycler of electronic waste in the country processed 330 metric tons (360 short tons) of waste. By 2009, Czech firms will be expected to recycle some 40,000 metric tons of televisions, computer equipment and clock radios.
Swedish success
Stena Metall will give Safina the experience and efficiency that it brings from Sweden, one of the few European countries to require recycling of electronic waste prior to the EU’s 2002 directive. The Czech Republic folded that directive into a 2005 law and has until the end of 2008 to come into full compliance.
The law’s financial burden is placed upon producers of electronics, who kick it down to the consumer in a small fee on electronics purchased since August 2005. The fee varies according to the value of the machine’s guts: If it’s packed with mercury, difficult and expensive to reclaim, it goes up; with easy-to-process copper, it’s less.
Producers must offer to collect all old electronics, which they do through six collective systems, Safina’s best customers. These systems also take in legacy equipment, produced by corporations that no longer exist.
“Today, you can take even a small radio to be dismantled,” said Tomáš Plachý, spokesman for Safina. “But people aren’t conditioned to do that.”
The companies will support public information campaigns advising the public to return old equipment to retail stores where it can be collected.
Once equipment is broken into its constituent fractions — anywhere between 75 percent and 100 percent of a product can be reclaimed — it is sold back to manufacturers, often for use in the next generation of electronics.

The average European generates 17–20 kilograms (37.4–44 pounds) of electronic waste each year, making the goal of recycling 4 kilograms per person by 2009 seem modest in comparison.

“We expect quite rapid growth in business,” said Plachý. “The Nordic countries recycle 12 kilos per person. There will be more material to recycle and more expansion.”
To capitalize on this, after solidifying its position as the market leader in the Czech Republic, Stena/Safina plans to expand in the East European market, where Safina already has a toehold.
Remnants
Prior to the EU directive, the only company processing electronic waste in the Czech Republic was the state-sponsored UH-EKO, established in 1995 with two goals: recycling and providing work for its 40 mentally or physically handicapped employees. The small company still operates, subsidized by the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry.
Alois Šohajek, UH-EKO’s director, is pleased with the new directive and EU accession, which allows him to export his reclaimed materials to Germany. But, as he expresses hope that more firms will employ handicapped people, he fears for his own company’s relevance.
“We were promised by the Environment Ministry that the companies were going to be nonprofit,” Šohajek said. “But it’s not like that. They can afford to use high technology and drop the price for 1 kilo of waste.
“I can’t do that. My employees can’t work with such complicated technology.”
Hela Balínová contributed to this report.


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