RAEE Scuola: a project for e-waste and environmental education in schools

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The project by Anci and CdcRAEE will involve 45,00 pupils: they will learn the value of electronic waste and the benefits of recycling.

Gold, silver, copper, but also iron, aluminium, plastic: this is the treasure that hides in our electric and electronic devices. This treasure is often not very well known, but a better information would encourage citizens to bring their devices to the dedicated recycling points rather than just throwing them in the trash bin. This is the goal of RAEE@scuola: to explain to everybody, especially to the young, that a correct e-waste management can bring great benefits to the entire society, avoiding the environmental damages caused by the dispersion of toxic substances.

The project, currently in its fourth edition, is promoted by the National Association of Italian Municipalities (Anci) together with the E-waste Coordination Centre (“Centro di Coordinamento RAEE”), with the operative support of Ancitel Energia & Ambiente and the patronage of the Ministry for the Environment. Raee@scuola is going to start in Alessandria, Piedmont, and by the end of June it will touch 50 Italian municipalities, with more than 45,000 pupils of primary and secondary schools.

An information kit will be distributed in the schools participating in the project, and kids will be invited to bring from home their small-sized e-waste, such as cell phones, video games, printers, hair dryers, to put them in dedicated containers distributed around the schools. After three weeks, the collected material will be taken away by the municipality’s urban hygiene operators and transferred to the municipal recycling point.

Every Italian produces on average 14,7 kg of e-waste per year. Of these, only 4 kg per capita, about 30% of all products, are correctly sorted and recycled.