Electrical waste treatment in Slovakia

A special method for the recycling of e-waste can be used by the electronic companies

In 2010 the European Commission asked Slovakia to comply with the waste legislation of the Union in terms of e-waste and the requirements of Directive 2002/96/EC.

A few years later, in 2015, a piece of legislation was passed in Slovakia with regard to electrical equipment and e-waste. It regulates different types of e-waste including equipment, parts of equipment, different components and consumables, etc.

Slovakia and E-waste

There are several companies in Slovakia that work in this field and recycle electronic waste but one of them stands out. It developed a special method for the recycling of e-waste that can be used by the electronics companies themselves.

The city of Namestovo is located in the beautiful Zilina region in Slovakia. This is a place where high-tech companies thrive. It is not the richest region but it is definitely on the right track to become a good place to live in with a lot of opportunities for employment. As of March 2019 it has 3.19% unemployment rate which is lower than the overall rate in Slovakia. And it is here where a company that was given as one of the best examples of innovation in the latest report of the Eco-innovation observatory platform, thrives.

The company is called Ekoray and works in the field of waste for a long time. It has its own fleet of trucks that meet all requirements for transporting dangerous waste and gives job to a lot of people. Despite being located in Namestovo, it works on the territory of whole Slovakia. The owner, Peter Bolek, developed software that allows monitoring of recovery limits for waste electrical equipment that is recycled, upcycled or reused thanks to the special method used in Ekoray and which can help many companies in their processing of such a waste.

The work is organized on the basis of separation. The processing stage includes the mechanical disassembly of equipment dividing the waste into individual components and removing any substances or parts that are to be reused, recycled or upcycled. Since this is an e-waste, a lot of additional metals come out of the equipment and its components. Copper, iron, aluminium, different precious metals and plastics can be later used in other productions and specialized processing plants. The plastics are sorted into two groups – one for recycling and one that cannot be recycled. The processing of the first groups is done according to the needs of the customers.

The second type is used by the company to produce different other products such as PVC pavers. It sells most of the gathered e-waste components and materials to other companies to use in their production and/or manufacturing lines.

The company puts itself on the map for eco-innovation and sets an example for other such companies in Slovakia to further develop the industry of e-waste recycling, upcycling and reuse as part of the circular economy strategy of the EU.