SWICO Recycling Guarantee – Material Flow

In order to assume the responsibility for the environment for their members, in 1993 the SWICO Environmental Commission created a regulation that outlines the prerequisites for recycling companies. Also a financing and logistic scheme was established. These were implemented in 1994. The recycling companies that satisfy the requirements are granted a license to process SWICO material. The SWICO Environmental Commission co-ordinates the licensed partners and provides regular technical controls of the recycling and disposal companies (carried out by a control team from EMPA St. Gallen). End-used electronic appliances are collected through 3 different channels: 18 % go back to importers/manufacturers, 58 % are returned to traders/retailers and 24 % are delivered to authorized SWICO collection points (data for 2002, SWICO Activity Report)*. From these three channels, most of the collected e-waste is transported to the 15 different licensed recycling companies. The processing of electronic waste includes manual and mechanical sorting and dismantling, shredding and recovery of materials. Most of the fractions need to be refined or conditioned in order to be sold as a secondary raw material or to be disposed of in landfills, respectively. Conditioning is mainly performed in Switzerland in one of the 36 Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plants. Some 3 % (by weight) of the material entering the SWICO Recycling System ends up in landfills.