Electrão marks 20 years at a crucial time for the sector
In the year in which Electrão marks 20 years of activity - looking ahead to the next 10 years, which corresponds to the horizon of the new licenses - the intention is to strengthen the commitment to sustainability and surpass the results already achieved by responding to Europe's invitation to give recycling an unprecedented place of prominence.
For the first time, circularity, waste management and recycling are taking center stage in economic policy, in the sovereignty policy of the European area and in the European economic model, as never before.
At a national level, 2025 will be a year of discussion on how to make the investments that are essential to boost recycling figures.
The political momentum will have to be seized to unblock the sector and to deliver other collection and recycling results for the different materials needed to supply tomorrow's value chains.
The challenge of recovering critical raw materials
The European regulation on critical raw materials places recycling as a strategic priority in order to secure essential resources for technological innovation and Europe's re-industrialization strategy.
The European Union has already identified priority products, such as lithium-ion batteries, which will improve the efficiency of resource recovery. Many elements are diluted in recycled materials, such as steel, iron and aluminum, which makes it difficult to reuse them in new supply chains.
The residual presence of critical materials in equipment will require advanced separation and refining processes and this will be a major technological challenge for Europe to meet.
The success of this strategy, despite the technical difficulties, will also depend on the involvement of citizens in the separation and proper recycling of certain products.
Investing in efficient recycling systems
Urban waste management systems need to significantly increase their efficiency levels in order to recover more recyclables from undifferentiated waste.
Implementing investments to enable the separation of certain families of waste - be it packaging, batteries or electrical equipment - could make all the difference in meeting environmental targets and preventing the spread of pollutants that must be treated. Only in this way will it be possible to recover packaging that is mistakenly thrown in the general waste bin and can also be recovered and recycled, relieving landfills.
Electrão argues that it is necessary to encourage the establishment of direct relations between the management entities and the municipalities/Urban Waste Management Systems, in order to prepare the necessary investments and operations to meet the established targets.
The definition of counterpart values alone is no guarantee that the collection, recycling and landfill detour figures needed will be achieved. There is room for management entities to converge on new models in order to finance and manage more efficient responses.
