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Discover WEEE recycling and its environmental impact

Comprendre le recyclage des produits

Our environment and our climate are based on a very delicate balance, which high-quality recycling of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) helps to preserve.

First and foremost, equipment decontamination helps to protect health and ecosystems, by extracting and eliminating pollutants. By also destroying the refrigerant and insulating gases found in refrigerators, for example, it makes an effective contribution to the fight against global warming. EEE recycling then goes through successive phases of separation and purification of the materials making up the equipment, until they are recovered and reintegrated into new products: these are the recycled materials.

To integrate the challenges of recycling a product right from the design phase, we need to understand how it will be recycled. 

Recycling: decontamination and material separation as central stages

Electrical and electronic equipment is recycled as a mixture at treatment sites, where pollutants are removed and its materials separated. But not all equipment can be recycled together! Depending on their size and the presence of pollutants, electrical equipment goes into specific WEEE streams.

Take a step-by-step look at the recycling process for different types of equipment, using the diagrams below! 

9 explanatory thumbnail diagrams in English to download:

  • Automatic recycling of flat screens

    PDF - 2 218 ko

  • Manual recycling of flat screens

    PDF - 1 908 ko

  • Recycling cathode-ray tubes screens (CRT screens)

    PDF - 2 496 ko

  • Recycling fluorescent tubes

    PDF - 3 034 ko

  • Recycling lamps

    PDF - 6 376 ko

  • Recycling large appliances excluding cold

    PDF - 3 868 ko

  • Recycling large cold appliances

    PDF - 2 126 ko

  • Recycling plastics

    PDF - 5 077 ko

  • Recycling small electrical and electronic appliances

    PDF - 3 226 ko

The type of recycling currently involving equipment for which ecosystem is accredited is mostly mechanical. Mechanical recycling involves the transformation of waste using machines and physical-mechanical processes. It should be distinguished from chemical recycling. To find out more about the development of chemical recycling and its applicability to WEEE, discover this study in French:

  • Etude recyclage chimique : Application aux plastiques issus des DEEE

    PDF - 4 430 ko

Tangible environmental benefits

Since 2019, ecosystem has calculated and published the environmental assessment for our recycling activities involving the household waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and lamps we collect each year. This environmental assessment has two key components:

  • Measuring the negative impacts of recycling on the environment

    The use of lorries for collection, operation of recycling centres, etc. all generate emissions (CO2, particulates, etc.) and consume resources (electricity, gas, coal, etc.). It is these negative impacts that ecosystem seeks to reduce, for example, by optimising its logistics structure or developing new recycling technologies through its R&D work.  

  • Measuring the environmental benefits of recycling

    The recycling process ultimately produces new materials (recycled materials) or energy (through energy recovery) for certain non-recyclable materials. Recycled materials make it possible to avoid the manufacture of virgin raw materials and the very significant associated impacts (mining, refining, etc.). Similarly, energy from waste-to-energy conversion can replace conventional energy and thus avoid the impacts of energy production (extraction of gas, coal, etc.). The impacts avoided constitute the environmental benefit of ecosystem's activities. 

The environmental assessment, which is the difference between these impacts and benefits, is evidence of the very high added value of WEEE recycling for the environment. Every year, more than 500,000 tonnes of CO2 are avoided and the equivalent of more than 3 million tonnes of raw materials are preserved thanks to ecosystem recycling activities.