What happens to your waste

Why it’s important to recycle and what happens to your waste

Effective recycling solutions benefit people, businesses and the environment.

  • Resources: Recycling means saving precious raw materials and energy.
  • Space: Our space is limited. Landfills poison the environment with dangerous toxic substances.
  • Environment and Health: A safer environment improves the quality of our lives and our happiness. Recycling and a greener environment reduce health dangers.
  • Energy consumption: Recycling means consuming less materials, reducing the amount of waste and using less energy to extract and process raw materials.

Large household appliances

This category includes WEEE products such as washing machines, stoves, dishwashers and dryers.

The first phase of recycling is decontamination. Cables and other electrical components are removed while resistors, plastics and iron components and other metals are separated and recovered. These materials are sent for further processing and recovery.

ERP Italia is the founder of the WEEE Coordination Centre (CDCRAEE) and the National Coordination Centre for Batteries and Accumulators (CDCNPA) and is recognised as an authoritative, efficient and reliable organisation to simplify the management of contributions and its members’ regulatory compliance.

Recycling process

1. Decontamination with Pre-crushing

2. Crushing

3. Separation

Recovered materials

Cables

Concrete

Capacitor

Plastic

Ferrous Metal

Non-Ferrous Metal

Cooling devices

his type of WEEE includes refrigerators, freezers and appliances equipped with refrigeration devices, such as water chillers. Some appliances contain refrigerating gases which are classified as ODS (ozone-depleting substances) such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) which are now banned.

These gases are captured and treated in ODS recovery facilities. Cooling equipment decontamination implies a series of processes. The compressors are decontaminated to recover ODS and oils. Insulating foam is treated for ODS recovery. Metals are recovered and resold. Plastic can be re-used for new products. Recovered ODS and oils are destroyed by a special treatment process.

Discover the recycling cycle of refrigerators, freezers and water coolers.