Smartphones and razors at the end of their life, only 17% of them are collected in Italy. Collection in stores is mandatory but remains little used

Smartphones, earphones, electric razors, cables. At the end of their life they remain in the drawers of the house or end up in the garbage bag. For small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), the collection rate in Italy does not exceed 17% of what is placed on the market, according to estimates by Erion Wee, against a European target of 65%. On the whole of WEEE, the WEEE Coordination Center indicates a rate of 32.5% for 2025: 6.22 kilos are collected per inhabitant per year, but only 1.43 concern small devices.

Yet, since 2016, shops with at least 400 square meters dedicated to electronics have been required to collect WEEE under 25 centimeters for free, with no obligation to purchase. The study «From proximity to collection», presented on Wednesday in Rome by Erion Weee, starts from here: the «Piccoli Raee, Grande Coop» project is defined as «an experimental extension of the 1 against 0 service».

Between October 2025 and July 2026, the 20 containers installed in ten Coop Lombardia stores collected 4,840 kilos, approximately 985 kilos per store per year, with large waste: Lodi and Pavia over 1.1 tons each, Busto Garolfo 128 kilos.

In the Municipalities involved, the collection of the municipal centers has not reduced in a way that can be traced back to the supermarkets: where it has dropped, as in Parabiago (about 10 tonnes less compared to 175 kilos collected by Coop), the decline is of another order of magnitude. For the study, the channel is "mainly complementary, rather than substitute". Membership confirms the role of the store "not only as a place to buy, but also as a point of reference for the area", explains Matteo Barsacchi, environmental delegate of Coop Lombardia.

T-Collect, the Logista project presented at the event and born from a program agreement with the Ministry of the Environment, the Italian Tobacconists Federation and the WEEE Coordination Center, is based on the same scheme: from 2024 over 30 thousand tobacconists will collect used electronic cigarettes for free, with no obligation to purchase. So far, more than 100 tons of devices have been collected, just over 3 kilos per point of sale. To raise awareness of the service, Logista launched the "Getta Giusto" campaign and redesigned the containers to make them more recognisable.