Rome, 13 June. (askanews) – In 2023, over 349 thousand tons of WEEE were collected, a weight equal to more than 990 fully loaded passenger planes (Boeing 777). An apparently enormous number but which, if looked at carefully, appears minimal given that it is only 36% of the total that is thrown away. WEEE is waste electrical and electronic equipment which, if thrown into collection areas managed by municipalities or in specific disposal points, can become a precious resource, yet Italians are still not very familiar with them. Only 4 out of 10 can give a correct definition and 10% confuse them with a tax. And even those who know them are mostly convinced that they are large household appliances such as televisions, refrigerators and computers. Barely 1 in 3 Italians knows that WEEE are also smaller commonly used objects such as, for example, electronic cigarettes, so much so that 1 in 5 believes that small WEEE can be thrown into unsorted waste and that they do not release toxic substances. These are the data from the SWG relationship between Italians and WEEE from which Marevivo started to launch, in collaboration with BAT Italia and with the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the fifth edition of the ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ campaign , with the aim of correctly informing about small WEEE and their disposal.
‘The recycling of small WEEE is essential to reduce the environmental damage caused by the impact of their incorrect disposal. It is necessary to implement an ecological transition to stem the climate crisis, abandoning the linear, unsustainable economy model, which plunderes natural resources, produces goods with a very short life cycle which generate mountains of waste – declares Raffaella Giugni, General Secretary of Marevivo – and urgently pass to a circular economy, which imitates nature where everything is transformed without creating waste other than that which fuels new life cycles. Small WEEE is an important resource. From them it is possible to extract resources useful for the production cycle, metals and precious materials which become secondary raw materials, forming part of a virtuous economic and environmental cycle. Ecology is an integral part of economics and politics. Only a model of sustainable society can reverse the trend, save the planet and ourselves.
Born in 2020, the ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ initiative aims to raise people’s awareness of the damage caused by littering, i.e. the act of throwing small waste into the environment, with a particular focus on abandoning cigarette butts . A virtuous path which – in these years of the campaign – has allowed the planet to save a total of 3,164,676 cigarette butts, as many as would be needed to cover a space of 326 hectares equal to approximately 466 football fields. This year ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ returns with a renewed and very specific focus: to increase awareness of the environmental impact that all small electrical and electronic devices have if not correctly disposed of and to provide adequate training on a topic that affects everyone . To reach a wider audience and disseminate in a widespread manner the information necessary for the correct management of WEEE, the project will exploit the potential of the network and will live online, allowing ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ to be included in the panorama of digital communication initiatives aimed at to encourage responsible behavior towards the environment and society.
‘We are proud and honored to be, once again, partners of the Marevivo ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ campaign, which allows us to be part of a virtuous system that involves citizens, tobacconists and local administrations to achieve a common objective: the environmental protection’, says Fabio de Petris, CEO of BAT Italia. ‘Today we find ourselves faced with a market that continues to evolve and embraces new product categories. New generation products which, once exhausted, will become waste to be disposed of. This means that we will all have to be aware of the fact that, although small in size, these products must also be differentiated correctly. We are thrilled to collaborate with Logista for this year’s edition: BAT, which has always been attentive to sustainability issues, was the first company in the sector to feel the need to adopt a correct disposal program, equipping the own temporary sales points of containers for the collection of used devices and implementing a pilot project in 2023 in the city of Turin in partnership with Interzero Italia. We are therefore happy to actively participate in the Logista project and from this perspective, we want to be at the forefront in promoting greater awareness about the correct disposal of used electronic smoking devices and in encouraging consumers to do their part.’
From ‘Small gestures, big crimes’ to ‘Micro WEEE, big waste’: here is the evolution of the 2024 campaign.
‘They are small and therefore less harmful’, ‘they do not contain recyclable materials’, ‘disposing of them is complicated’. These are just 3 of the false myths to dispel about micro WEEE, but they show how much there is still to be done on the topic. This is why the 2024 edition of ‘Small Gestures, Big Crimes’ will have an eloquent title: ‘Micro WEEE, Maxi Waste’. A further step towards the future, which will transform the ‘crime scene’ of past years into a real awareness-raising platform, a container of multiple formats capable of intercepting the widest and most heterogeneous audience. The ‘ingredients’ of this activity will vary from interactive quizzes to unconventional videos, up to a series of information materials on the importance of correctly disposing of these products by placing them in dedicated collection centers (visit the website https://piccoligesti.eu/ for further information) and also a real map of tobacconists that collect small WEEE updated in real time. This last initiative, in particular, is made possible thanks to RECYCLE-CIG, the organized collection circuit for spent electronic cigarettes activated by Logista, the main distribution operator integrated with points of sale in Europe. The RECYCLE-CIG project, which BAT Italia has joined since its announcement, provides the possibility for consumers to return used electronic cigarettes and smoking devices – regardless of the purchase of a new product – in one of the approximately 30,000 participating tobacconists .
‘Thanks to the agreement with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security and the WEEE Coordination Centre’ – states María Pilar Colás, CEO of Logista Italia – ‘We have launched RECYCLE-CIG, the first organized collection circuit for cigarettes used electronics in Italy: concrete support for the entire supply chain and for all our customers and stakeholders. We have placed special boxes in the approximately 30,000 participating tobacconists, easily identifiable through the ‘Logista per te’ App, where consumers can deliver electronic cigarettes or devices without having to purchase new ones. We will also shortly launch an important awareness campaign on the topic. María Pilar Colás concludes: ‘As a Logistician we make our distribution capillarity available to Micro WEEE, Maxi Rifiuti, a strong point of the RECYCLE-CIG project. We are also happy to share the expertise in terms of innovation and communication that we have developed on the topic of sustainability.’
From digital to real: awareness days and ‘crime scenes’ in 5 Italian municipalities.
Although this year’s theme is entirely dedicated to WEEE, the commitment of Marevivo and BAT Italia remains alive in also carrying forward the fight against littering, the abandonment of cigarette butts and small waste in the environment through support for municipalities that want raise awareness among its citizens on the issue. The data, in fact, indicate that every year in Italy 64% of cigarettes smoked in public places, including parks, gardens, squares and streets, are disposed of improperly, leaving the butt on the ground. This is why, in line with what has been done in previous years, this year too the municipalities that wish to join the initiative will receive the ‘kit’ to create an installation that represents a real ‘crime scene’, in which , next to the silhouettes of the ‘victims’ depicting turtles, fish and starfish, there is a reproduction of a giant cigarette butt, as a symbolic ‘murder weapon’. For 2024, five kits are available for as many municipalities, with Procida and Sciacca already confirmed.
