WEEE is Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment.  With an annual growth rate of 3-5% - three times that of normal waste - WEEE is the fastest growing waste-category worldwide. 

 In 2006, Italy produced 800,000 tonnes of such waste, of which 108,000 tonnes were collected.  In Europe, during the same period, 8-12,000,000 tonnes of WEEE were produced. The UN estimates that between 20 and 50 million tonnes of hi-tech waste is produced around the world.

The proliferation of computers, keyboards and mobile phones, driven by advancing digitalization, should not distract attention from all the WEEE generated in the home.  There, the products in question - domestic appliances (large and small), lighting equipment, toys, sports and leisure equipment, medical devices, and much more - are discarded with the utmost rapidity to make way for ever better performing ones.

Examples of WEEE:

·         televisions 
·         video recorders, DVD players
·         video cameras, cameras
·         radios, stereo systems, MP3/MP4 players, headsets
·         computers
·         telephones and mobile phones  
·         electrical appliances for the home and for personal care (refrigerators, washing machines, stoves, vacuum cleaners, irons, toasters, blenders, sewing machines, hair dryers, shavers, hair clippers, watches, scales, etc.) 
·         air-conditioners
·         fans, electric heaters
·         power tools (drills, saws, grass cutters)
·         electrically powered toys 
·         electrical musical instruments