The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment organized the Conference “Towards a new model of management of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment“, to analyze the new regulations approved last February on this matter. The Secretary of State for the Environment, Federico Ramos, said, during the closing of the conference, that “effective waste management requires the committed action of all the actors in the chain“.
 
Representatives of all the sectors involved in the collection and treatment of this type of waste participated in this conference to analyse the new Royal Decree on waste electrical and electronic equipment approved by the Council of Ministers on 20 February and which includes a battery of new measures to improve its separate collection and management.
 
Federico Ramos recalled that the new Royal Decree will make progress in improving results, focusing on their control, traceability and greater coordination. Among other contributions, it will make it possible to improve the control and supervision by public administrations of the management of this waste and will clarify the activity of the agents involved in the process. To this end, an Electronic Platform is created in which the data on the collection and management of this waste will be included, financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment and the producers, and an Office for the allocation of collections, which will be supervised by the Public Administrations involved.  

The waste sector is the largest generator of green employment in Spain and represents 27% of total employment of this type in our country, while the preparation for the reuse of WEEE can generate around 4,700 direct jobs, according to recent estimates.  “Achieving the best conservation of the environment is everyone’s business, and that is why environmental policies need everyone’s involvement and commitment,” said Ramos, who stressed that this regulation shows that “everyone’s collaboration and the search for agreements must lead us to magnificent results for society as a whole and for present and future well-being.”