On a terribly hot day, the ecologists of the Recycling Patrol from the Greek-Catholic High School”Timotei Cipariu” in Bucharest and their coordinating teacher Mrs. Mihaela Grama enter the WEEE recycling plant Total Waste Recycling (TWR) in Jilava. Compared to the drop off points in their high school, everything here is oversized. At the entrance a huge scale where thousands of kilos are weighed. All around mountains of fridges, screens, computers or old washing up machines that draw an unusual landscape. On the dismantling belt there are cathode ray tubes from old-time TV sets. The dismantling team is sorting with precise and rapid movements all components in metal, plastic, glass and electronic elements. The weirdly shaped equipment thoroughly presses the materials on categories, with high pitched sighs.
An issue of law and of mentality
”This is the place where the waste that you collect arrives.” begins the tour Mr. Mihai Roșca, TWR Manager. ”If you do not collect, we have nothing to recycle.” The greatest amount of the waste recycled at TWR comes from the Romanian Recycling Association RoRec. You can see the pride on the faces of the Patrol’s young agents. They look around carefully trying to imagine where the appliances collected by them find their place among the impressive pyramids surrounding them. Some of them see for the first time what is in a computer, from the plastic cover to the processor with tens of hardly visible circuits. Mihai Roșca explains what toxic substances every WEEE category contains and how they are recovered according to modern standards. As small and inoffensive as they seem, the batteries have a high pollution potential.
”They are small, and out of habit, people throw them as domestic garbage. Few know that the hundreds of stray batteries in the garbage piles become a source of pollution. They cannot be recovered by recycling, and all the heavy metals get to the soil and water.” say TWR representatives.
The discussion gets animated when the precious metals contained by WEEE are mentioned. The beautiful image of jewelry gets a new shade. ”The gold is not just a precious metal; it is also a heavy metal harmful for the environment and people. By recovering it, we make sure that it won’t damage the human health.”
The mobile phones take video and graphic proofs of the expedition in the recycling land. The discussion goes on focusing on the responsibility with which we use technology, especially since the young generation changes gears very frequently to be in fashion.
Mr. Roșca ends with a mobilizing message:”Throwing e-waste in any other way rather than by separate collection is already a contravention. Here interferes the law, not only the common sense. And their storing is an issue, especially in the rural area, when the waste can come in direct contact with the soil. We also have an issue of mentality. With every person that you convince it is not good to keep an old and useless home appliance or to throw it at hazard we take a small but important step in changing the bad habits in Romania.”
A clearer vision of the WEEE collection process
Now I understand better how harmful for the environment are the old home appliances and the substances they contain. We have to act preventively, to recycle as much as we can and in the right way, says Ioana impressed. Her classmate, Alina, expresses her interest in bringing her contribution to recycling in the future as well.
Even if we are young, we can make the grown-ups change and understand that recycling is a good thing both for us and the environment, thinks Diana.
The boys underline more „pragmatic” things: Everything is so well organized; every object is sorted on categories. I liked the way our hosts from TWR presented their activity, answered our questions very clearly and in detail. I hope that Total Waste Recycling becomes a model for future business, says Iulian.
Before departure, a surprise moment. The high school students receive souvenirs made up of recycled materials. Another original way to promote creative re-use. Mihaela Grama, the coordinating teacher, sums up: ”We now have more convincing arguments for the messages we use for the collection actions during the last weeks of the program. A visit to such a center provides the Patrol’s agents with interesting information, and, more importantly, shows them the value of their contribution to e-waste recycling and pollution mitigation.”
We hope that this experience of the Recycling Patrol will also inspire other agents and teachers in the country. You can pay a virtual visit to the Total Waste Recycling center at http://www.tw-recycling.ro/.
We invite the Patrols’ coordinating teachers to inform us about their initiatives and projects at www.facebook.com/patruladereciclare or email patruladereciclare@rorec.org.