Due to intensive human activities in regions bordering the Mediterranean Sea, waste is a significant pressure on water and coastal environments. Such threats are especially important in areas where dumpsites are still used. Growing consumption is generating changes in the composition of waste, including ‘new’ waste streams such as electronic.

E-waste exposes a high environmental risk for MED, as informal recycling and e-waste abandoned in dumping sites provide hazardous substances a way to seed into groundwater, affecting water sources, aquifers and sea water. The unification of waste management criteria in the transnational MED area is essential, since otherwise it could facilitate the dynamization of the illegal movement of e-waste from areas with stricter regulations towards areas with more permissive regulations. To stop this threat, it is necessary to take into account common joint planning, and coordinated business promotion.

Preventing e-waste from polluting MED water by turning waste into a resource

The eWAsTER project aims to promote local and regional policies for better e-waste management, to reduce e-waste environmental damage in the selected areas, while promoting new innovative eco-business models based on the conversion of the currently lineal electrical and electronic (E&E) sector into a sustainable circular model.

eWAsTER doesn’t present e-waste as a source of environmental damage, but an opportunity to create an INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY through the valorisation of this waste.