How to turn WEEE into beehives

Collecting e-waste in Lodz, Poland is now much easier and builds new homes for bees  

The Polish city of Lodz now has 100 distinctive red containers for recycling small electronic goods (which do not exceed 50 cm). This means that residents can dispose of these items quickly and safely, using the containers near their homes and apartments.

“This project makes it easier for residents,” explains Małgorzata Moscow-Wodnicka, Vice-President of the City of Lodz. “We realize that we do not always have time to go to the recycling centre, but e-waste should never be thrown away. If someone has hairdryers, batteries or other used equipment up to 50 cm, then they can leave them in the red containers.”

The containers are there to tackle an urgent and growing problem.

“We produce as much as 50 million tonnes of e-waste annually – and everything that runs on electricity or batteries should be recycled when it becomes waste,” describes Paweł Palus, operations manager at ERP Poland. “This project makes it as easy as possible for residents to do so.”

The project is organised by the City Council, MB Recycling, the Polish Environmental Recovery Foundation and ERP Poland. All items collected will go to professional processing plants, and some of the recovered materials will be used to make beehives.

“The recycled hives will soon be in many cities in Poland,” says Krzysztof Kieszkowski of the Environmental Recovery Foundation. “Modern beehives partly made from recycled materials will perfectly fit into the urban landscape of Lodz.”

Find out more about the project here.

FACT BOX:
Landbell Group company, ERP Poland provides WEEE, batteries and packaging compliance
for producers in Poland.