Proceedings SUM 2014, Second Symposium on Urban Mining

Bergamo, Italy; 19 – 21 May 2014

2014 by CISA Publisher, Italy

WEEE RECOVERY IN THE OULU REGION,

FINLAND: A LOCAL RECOVERY

NETWORK AND CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES

TOWARD RECYCLING

J. YLÄ-MELLA*, R.L. KEISKI**, AND E. PONGRÁCZ*

* Centre of Northern Environmental Technology, Thule Institute, University of Oulu,

Paavo Havaksen tie 3, 90570 Oulu, Finland

** Mass and Heat Transfer Process Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University

of Oulu, Erkki Koiso-Kanttilan katu 3, 90570 Oulu, Finland

SUMMARY: In this paper, the legislative implementation and the development of the WEEE

recovery infrastructure in Finland are described. Further, the realisation of regional WEEE recovery

system in the Oulu region is introduced and, finally, the results of questionnaire survey on

consumers’ perceptions toward WEEE recycling in the city of Oulu are presented. It can be stated

that the development of the Finnish WEEE recovery infrastructure has succeeded while the

mandatory recycling percentages have been satisfied. Additionally, it seems that the regional

collection system in the Oulu area is functional and qualifies well in its task. On the grounds of the

survey it can be asserted that the regional WEEE collection network is relatively well-known

among local residents, yet only half of the respondents have chosen to take active use of it.

Therefore, the conclusion of this work is that, currently, the weakest link of the Finnish WEEE

recovery system is the consumer. Ultimately, information and communication will be the key to

fully realize the potential of WEEE recovery and to establish a sustainable WEEE recovery system.

1. INTRODUCTION

Setting up efficient collection schemes is necessary to ensure the achievement of the targets set in

the European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Following the

subsidiary principle, the Directive for WEEE defines the general requirements to comply with

mandatory collection and recycling objectives. Despite the essential and uniform requirements of

the WEEE Directive to all Member States, the transpositions of the Directive into national

legislations vary substantially. For instance, issues relating to the scope, range and type of producer

responsibility, funding mechanisms and registration and monitoring are not particularly imposed by

the Directive (Sinha-Khetriwal et al., 2006) and, therefore, more than 150 different compliance

schemes exist in the EU Member States (Sinha Khetriwal et al., 2011).

This paper provides a short overview of the implementation of the WEEE Directive to Finnish

legislation and illustrates the development of the WEEE recovery infrastructure in Finland. The

paper focuses on the realisation of WEEE recovery in the Oulu region by introducing the detailed

SUM 2014, Second Symposium on Urban Mining

description of a regional WEEE recovery system and material flows of pre-treated recyclable

WEEE devices. Consumers’ attitudes and behaviours have a significant role in achieving an

efficient and environmentally conscious waste management. The paper also reports on the result of

a survey carried out in the city of Oulu in 2013. The survey’s indication on consumers’ activities

and perceptions toward mobile phones recycling are presented and, finally, the importance of

raising consumer awareness is discussed.

2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WEEE DIRECTIVE IN FINLAND

2.1 Characteristics of Finland

Finland is the sixth largest country in EU with the total area of 338 400 km2 (of which

approximately 10 % are inland waters) situated in Northern Europe. Finland has borders with

Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north. Further, Estonia lies to the south

beyond the Gulf of Finland. The distance between the southernmost to the northernmost points of

Finland is almost 1200 kilometres.

Finland had 5.4 million inhabitants at the end of year 2012. The average population density of

Finland is less than 18 inhabitants per square kilometre resulting in the most sparsely populated

country in the European Union. The majority of Finns live in the southern and western parts of

country. The most populous area is the Helsinki capital region (cities of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa

and Kauniainen with the land area of 770 km2) in the south coast of Finland with more than

1 million inhabitants in total at the end of 2012. Also the other larger cities such as Tampere, Oulu

and Turku have more than 180 000 inhabitants each. In addition to the cities, there are about 300

municipalities in Finland, half of which have fewer than 6 000 residents.

2.2 Legislative implementation

Prior to the implementation of the WEEE Directive, neither the legislative nor the operational

preconditions to a nationwide, comprehensive separate collection and recovery system of WEEE

existed in Finland. In order to implement the WEEE Directive to the Finnish Waste legislation, the

Finnish Waste Act (1072/1993) was amended (452/2004) in June 2004 to include new clauses on

producer responsibility and, further, governmental regulation of WEEE (852/2004) was

incorporated to the national legislation in September 2004.

Because of the implementation of Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), Finnish Waste Act

was reformed in 2011. No outstanding changes in producer responsibility on EEE were done,

however, roles and responsibilities of various WEEE actors were clarified and the mandate of the

national inspecting and controlling authority was enhanced. The reformed Waste Act (646/2011)

took effect on May 1st, 2012 with an exception of articles concerning producer responsibility,

which entered into force one year later, on May 1st, 2013.

In spite of the recent reform of the Waste Act, the Finnish WEEE legislation is still under

revision due to recast of the WEEE Directive in 2012. The amending process of the Waste Act

646/2011 and the revision of the Government Degree on WEEE are in progress, in such a way that

circulations of proposals for comment were carried out in 2013 aiming at the adoptions of the Waste

Act amendment and the Degree revision in the course of transition period of the WEEE Directive

2012/19/EU.

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2.3 WEEE recovery infrastructure in Finland

The overwhelming majority of electronic devices sold on the Finnish market are imported and,

therefore, the representatives of foreign and domestic producers may transfer responsibility over

discarded electronics to a producers association. The producers association in turn appoints WEEE

recovery companies to treat and recycle the collected waste. In Finland, electrical and electronic

equipment producers and importing business have formed five producer co-operatives for the

purpose of organizing collection and recycling of WEEE. Electrical and Electronics Equipment

Producers' Association (SELT ry), ICT Producer Co-operative (ICT-tuottajaosuuskunta) and

Finnish Lamp Importers and Producers Association (FLIP ry) have founded together an umbrella

organization and service provider named Elker Ltd. The Association of Electric and Electronic

Equipment Manufacturers and Importers (SER-tuottajayhteisö ry, SERTY) and the European

Recycling Platform Finland (ERP Finland), formerly Nordic Electronics Recycling Association

(Nera Oy), operate independently but in collaboration with the Elker group. In the course of the first

five years after the implementation of WEEE Directive, more than 1000 companies have become

members of these associations. Moreover, over 120 companies had registered to the producer

register as individual producers for taking care of their producer responsibility independently,

mainly in the B2B business. (Toppila, 2011)

In Finland, producer associations promotes a nationwide decentralized logistics network with

over 30 sorting and pre-treatment stations and several regional transport service providers across the

country. Collection of WEEE is arranged mainly as a permanent collection; approximately 450

collection points existed around the country in 2011 (Toppila, 2011). Permanent collection points

are, in most cases, provided by the municipality and, in some cases, by private companies or social

economy enterprises. Private users and households can bring end-of-life (EOL) products to the

collection points free of charge. Non-private users, such as enterprises and institutes are, generally,

not allowed to return WEEE to collection points but are, ordinarily, required to have an individual

contract with regional operators to remove and take care of their electronic equipment. However, in

case of moderate amounts of consumer WEEE being used in the companies, those can be also

returned to certain B2B reception points managed by the producers associations.

A permanent collection system is not, however, efficient in all cases, because e.g. the quantity of

returned devices has to be checked and transported regularly (Barba-Gutiérrez et al., 2008; Kang

and Schoenung, 2005). Therefore, in the smallest or the most sparsely populated municipalities of

Finland, the recovery of WEEE has been organized as a mobile collection once or twice a year.

Further, since May 1st, 2013, end-of-life EEE can also be returned to the retailers in association

with buying a new, corresponding device. Moreover, small WEEE including lightning equipment

can be returned with no purchase obligation to the larger shops with certain limitations. The main

stages of the WEEE recovery system in Finland are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The stages of the Finnish WEEE recovery system (modified from Ylä-Mella et al., 2014).

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3. THE WEEE RECOVERY IN THE OULU REGION

In the Oulu region, the regional municipal waste management system is managed by the Oulu

Waste Management Company, which is responsible for municipal waste in the operation area of 12

municipalities with the total area of 13 760 km2

(see Figure 2), serving over 285 000 residents in

2013. In order to promote households recycling activities, the Oulu Waste Management Company

has currently 73 collection points in its area of operation to facilitate separate collection of domestic

recyclables such as cardboard, glass, metal and paper. Moreover, there are 9 waste stations where

particular special domestic wastes such as hazardous wastes, WEEE and small amounts of waste

oils are received for free. (Oulu Waste Management Company, 2014a)

3.1 WEEE Recovery network

3.1.1 Permanent collection points

In the case of WEEE, the Oulu Waste Management Company has identical contracts with producers

associations of SERTY, ERP Finland and Elker group to maintain a total of 11 permanent WEEE

reception points in its operating area. All these reception points are manned with fixed opening

times and guidance is available on demand. The main reception point of WEEE is situated in the

Rusko Waste Centre in the premises of the Waste Management Company in Oulu. In the premises,

WEEE is roughly sorted by consumers when the EOL devices are returned to the designated

containers and cages in the area (Figure 3). The rest of the 10 reception points are situated on the

company’s waste stations in rural population centres of the Oulu region. In those reception points,

the returned EOL devises are put into a single container or cage without sorting.

In addition to the reception points maintained by the Oulu Waste Management Company,

consumers can also return the EOL devices to certain B2B reception points managed by the

producers associations. These points are located in connection with the sorting and pre-treatment

plants of private service providers in Oulu and they are primary intended for moderate amounts of

consumer WEEE being used in the companies. However, they are open for private consumers with

larger batches of WEEE and, in addition, for distributors, who forward received WEEE to the

official recovery network by themselves.

Figure 2. Operating area of the Oulu Waste Management Company (modified from Oulu Waste

Management Company, 2014a).

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Figure 3. WEEE returned to the main reception point situated in the Rusko Waste Centre.

3.1.2 In-store reception

Until these days, the use of retailers’ take-back option has been very limited in Finland due to

strong resistance of the Finnish retail business. However, in accordance with the Directive

2012/19/EU on WEEE, the retailer take-back option has been extended throughout Finland. Since

May 1st, 2013, end-of-life EEE devices can also be returned to the retailers in association with

buying a new, corresponding device, to the store the new device is bought at. Since that date, small

WEEE (all dimensions no more than 25 cm) can be returned also with no purchase obligation to

electronics shops larger than 200 m2 or to grocery shops with the minimum area of 1000 m

2.

Additionally, fluorescent lamps and LEDs as well as portable batteries and accumulators can be

returned to the retail shops with no purchasing obligations.

There is no accurately dictated implementation for in-store reception in Finland; however, shops

are required to finance and organise the place, requisites and work contributions needed to receive

the WEEE. Distributors may forward the received WEEE to the B2B reception points of official

collection network by themselves or, alternatively, they may enrol in a distributors register in order

to obtain free unloading services financed by producers associations. After registration, distributors

may purchase certain combo receivers designed especially for small WEEE or get free of charge a

special collection requisite for data WEEE, if such kinds of devices are included in the distributor’s

product range. Some illustrations of in-store reception in Oulu region are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4. In-store reception points in the certain larger shops in the City of Oulu.

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According to The Association of Electric and Electronics Manufacturers and Importers, around

1500 distiributors and shops have already enrolled on a distributors register in Finland. However, it

estimates that still around 1000 shops are lacking from the register, partly due to challenges to

arrange a physical space of in-store collection in trading places, and partly due to low amounts of

received WEEE. It is commonly speculated that several trade players are still waiting for the

completion of the Finnish WEEE legislation before they will enrol on the distributors register. In

the Oulu region, there are only 20 shops enrolled in the register by the end of January 2014. All

registered are local units of nationwide or international chains shops, which trade in daily consumer

goods or interior decoration and building products. Remarkably, only one of the registered shops in

the Oulu region is reckoned as an electronics shop. (SERTY, 2014)

3.2 WEEE material flows

From the collection points of the Oulu region, WEEE is transported by private transportation

providers contracted by producers associations to the regional sorting and pre-treatment stations

situated in the city of Oulu. In the sorting plant, WEEE is separated for different product co-

operatives, weighed and sorted into re-usable and not re-usable ones. Re-usable equipment or

components are disassembled, stocked and delivered onwards. Further, the pre-treated recyclable

devices and materials are delivered for treatment and material recovery mainly in Finland (see

Figure 5). Non-recyclable WEEE is stocked in the pre-treatment station until it is delivered to the

final treatment plants or disposed. Data on the quantities of various WEEE fractions and operations

performed in the sorting and pre-treatment station are sent to the producers’ co-operatives.

In 2013, more than 1900 tonnes of WEEE were received in the collection points maintained by

the Oulu Waste Management Company. Almost a half of the received WEEE (939 402 kg) were

small household and consumer electronic devices and, further, 31 % (592 439 kg) were

miscellaneous large household appliances. In addition, 354 444 kg of refrigeration devices (19 %)

and 17 183 kg (1 %) of fluorescent lamps were received. (Oulu Waste Management Company,

2014b)

Figure 5. The course of pre-treated WEEE and tonnages from reception points maintained by the

Oulu Waste Management in 2013 (modified from Ylä-Mella et al., 2014).

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4. CONSUMERS AWARENESS AND RECYCLING BEHAVIOUR

To achieve the required recovery rates under the WEEE Directive, the most important factor to be

considered is how to ensure the complete participation of the end-users. The evaluation of the

implementation of the WEEE Directive in the EU Member States shows that the returns of

appliances lighter than 1 kg are currently very low for all WEEE recovery systems in the EU level

(Huisman et al., 2007). Further, several studies indicate that a large fraction of small end-of-use

EEE such as mobile phones do not currently enter the WEEE recovery systems but lie around not in

use (Chancerel, 2010; Gutiérrez et al., 2010; Ongondo and Williams, 2011; Pérez-Belis et al., 2013;

Polák and Drápalová, 2012; Tanskanen and Butler, 2007) or, even worse, are disposed as

inappropriate ways such as with mixed waste (Bernstad et al., 2011; Darby and Obara, 2005;

Gutiérrez et al., 2010; Melissen, 2006; Pérez-Belis et al., 2013).

4.1 Consumers’ recycling behaviour and awareness

In order to investigate consumers’ recycling behaviour and awareness related to electronic wastes, a

survey of consumer action regarding end-of-use electronics was conducted in the City of Oulu in

2013 by using a bilingual questionnaire (double-sided in Finnish and in English). The questionnaire

concentrated on respondents recycling behaviour and reasons leading to the current situation.

Respondents were asked, if they have unused mobile phones at homes and what are reasons to that.

Respondents’ personal recycling actions and perceptions for usability of the current WEEE

collection network were next enquired and some habits related to changing a mobile phone were

sought. In addition, respondents were enquired if they disposed a mobile phone with mixed waste

and, alternatively, what they were thinging of mobile phones recycling. They were also asked if

they were aware of Finnish WEEE legislation and if they have seen the symbol for the marking of

EEE accordingly the WEEE Directive. Finally, a question concerning financial issues of WEEE

recovery was asked.

4.2 Results of the questionnaire

Totally, 53 persons (response rate 35.3 %) participated in the survey. Most of respondents (45) had

end-of-use mobile phones at homes. Half of them kept just one or two extra phones at home;

however, two persons admitted to have more than 10 unused mobile phones in their households.

Totally 70 % told that they just stored the phones at home. The most common reason was to keep

them as spares or they just have not gotten around to returning them yet. None of them has disposed

mobile phones with mixed waste, but only 28 % of took old mobile phones to the recycling centres,

and 17 % did not know where to take old phones. Most commonly respondents had returned old

phones to the main collection point of the Waste Management Company at the Rusko recycling

centre (23 %) but also collection points in certain working places and in-store reception were

occasionally used. Regarding the convenience of current recovery system, 30 % of respondents

regarded that it was simple to take old mobile phones to the recycling centre while only 4 % viewed

it troublesome. However, most of the respondents (66 %) did not take a stand on the question.

When asking for a frequency of changing mobile phones, none of respondents admitted to

change a mobile phone more often than once a year, most commonly (57 %) mobile phones were

changed every 2 to 3 years. Majority of respondents (72 %) claimed they would only change a

mobile phone if the old one is not working properly anymore. However, respondents agreed to

change mobile phones also if the latest models have novel features (32 %) or if mobile phones are

company-owned (17 %).

All but three respondents agreed with the importance of recycling old mobile phones. The main

reason shared is material recovery (35 %), especially in the form of recovery of precious metals and

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other valuable materials contained in EE devices. In addition, 28 % of respondents regarded

recycling as important due to the high economic value of WEEE.

Concerning the Finnish WEEE legislation, more than half of respondents (57 %) were aware of

Government Degree concerning WEEE recovery in Finland. Almost all respondents were aware

that households do not have to pay when returning end-of-use devices for recycling. Regarding the

symbol used for marking EE devices, 43 % of respondents had seen it in their mobile phones,

batteries or manuals; on the other hand, as much as 36 % did not recognize it. Notwithstanding,

64 % were able to identify the meaning of the symbol.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The implementation of the WEEE Directive and development of the WEEE recovery infrastructure

have been put into practice in Finland in a relatively short time. At the same time as the legislative

basis has been enacted, a functional infrastructure has been built successfully and the mandatory

collection and recycling rates have clearly been exceeded in Finland. Since 2007, the the WEEE

collection rate in Finland has exceeded 9 kg/inhab./year and stands as the third best in the context of

European Union despite of wide, sparsely populated areas in the Northern and Eastern parts of

Finland (Eurostat, 2013).

Based on this study, it seems that the regional collection system of WEEE in the Oulu area is

functional and qualifies well in its task; in 2013, WEEE amounts received solely in the collection

points maintained by Oulu Waste Management Company were close to 7 kg/inhab. (Oulu Waste

Management Company, 2014b). When also WEEE received in the B2B collection points and in-

store collection are taken into consideration, a total amount of collected WEEE in the Oulu region is

approaching the Finnish average level of 9 kg/inhab./year. In addition to the total tonnages of

annually collected WEEE, also the reducing quantities of WEEE disposed with mixed municipal

solid waste (MSW) indicate the functionality of the current WEEE recovery system. According to

the Oulu Waste Management Company, the quantities of WEEE disposed with MSW in Oulu

region have remained at the same level as in the Helsinki capital region (on average

1.5 kg/inhab./year in 2012 (Pulkkinen and Sinisalo, 2012)) even though distances from rural

households to the nearest WEEE reception point might be several tens of kilometres.

In addition to reasonable returning possibilities of EOL devices, the level of consumers’

understanding of the importance of separate WEEE collection and their behavior regarding to

returning EOL devices to collection points also have a significant influence on the effectiveness of

WEEE recovery. Based on the impression of the WEEE Forum (2012), consumers’ activity varies

substantially across Europe. Scandinavians and Swiss are typically the most aware of environmental

issues and, therefore, most likely to return WEEE to collection points.

However, the case is that awareness may not translate to behavior if the public are not aware of

the consequence of their actions. On the grounds of the survey, this seems to be the case also in the

Oulu region. Respondents were unanimous when asking the importance of recycling old mobile

phones; all persons, who answered the question, agreed the statement and, further, most of them

also argued for the reasons of importance. However, even though as much as 35 % of motives were

linked to resource efficiency, up to 85 % of the respondents store their non-used mobile phones at

home for the possible future use, which may never come.

The primary goal of the Finnish WEEE legislation is to prevent waste generation and to promote

reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery. To facilitate reuse, and the highest level of recovery,

consumers will need to be committed to return these end-of-use electronics to WEEE recovery

centres without delays. The short social life-cycle of EEE has a significant impact on reuse potential

of functional WEEE and it can be easily lost in the course of purposeless storing. Therefore, there is

still a need for more information and publicity on the WEEE recovery in Finland. Based on

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Swedish and Norwegian experiences as forerunners of the WEEE management, it is expected that

more raising consumer awareness will lead to environmentally sound behaviour and, ultimately,

improved WEEE recovery efficiency.

6. CONCLUSIONS

It can be concluded that the implementation of the WEEE Directive and development of the WEEE

recovery infrastructure have succeeded while the mandatory recovery and recycling percentages

have been satisfied in Finland. It seems that the regional collection system of WEEE in the Oulu

area is functional and qualifies well in its task; collected amounts of WEEE are matching Finnish

average levels and, currently, only low amounts of WEEE are disposed with mixed municipal

waste. Moreover, on the grounds of the survey conducted in the city of Oulu in 2013, the current

regional WEEE collection network seems to be relatively well-known among local residents.

Knowledge of the existence of recovery system in itself, however, does not bring about pro-

environmental behaviour. The survey also revealed that up to 85 % of the users store their non-used

mobile phones at home until a possible future use, which may never come. It seems that the

awareness of the importance of mobile phone recycling is considerable high, notwithstanding,

recycling of old mobile phones is still not a main stream activity. Respondents of the survey stated

to be aware of the existence of a WEEE recovery system but, for one reason or another, only half of

them have chosen to take use of it.

To change this attitude of consumers is a fundamental requirement for sustainable waste

management. There is a huge potential in the resources currently stored at homes, waiting for the

recycling culture to evolve so that WEEE recovery will be a mainstream activity. The final

conclusion of this work is that, currently, the weakest link of the Finnish WEEE recovery system is

the consumer. Money does not appear to be the key motivation for recovery. Nonetheless,

consumers need to be aware that the price of the recovery infrastructure is embedded in the price of

the product. Ultimately, information and communication will be the key to fully realize the potential

of WEEE recovery and to establish a sustainable WEEE recovery system.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS (unnumbered list)

The Association of Electric and Electronic Equipment Manufacturers and Importers (SERTY),

Mr. Arto Puumalainen and Ms. Ilona Kytö.

Finnish Doctoral Programme in Environmental Science and Technology (EnSTe).

Oulu Waste Management Company, Ms. Mari Juntunen.

University of Oulu Graduate School (UniOGS), Thule Institute's Doctoral Program.

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