Approximately 8.5 kilograms of electrical waste is collected per capita per year in Slovakia. However, electronic equipment manufacturers point out that there is still some electrical waste that does not enter the official statistics.
More than 86,000 tonnes of electrical equipment were launched on the Slovak market last year. In the same year, approximately 46,000 tonnes of electrical waste were collected. Of this amount of electrical waste, about 43,550 tonnes (94.06%) were recovered, recycled, and 43,240 tonnes of electrical waste (93.42%) were prepared for reuse.
Deputy Environment Minister Juraj Smatana claims that Slovakia cannot be satisfied with these statistics, because the production of electrical waste is still rising. "In Slovakia, we have a high recycling rate, in contrast to, for example, municipal waste. Nevertheless, we are becoming more and more flooded with electrical waste. Once we produce the waste, it is crucial to constantly improve the collection system and recycle the waste as much as possible," he said.
First vice-chairman of the Slovak Towns and Municipalities Association Radomír Brtáň considers the current system of electrical waste collection to be functional and almost problem-free. However, according to him, the collection has its limits, caused by various factors. "The downside is, for example, the purchase of electrical appliances by various dubious companies, which will recover useful parts from electrical equipment and the rest will end up somewhere in a collection yard, or worse in a landfill," he said.
According to the Environment Ministry, the aim is to get electrical waste to official collection points.
