Objectives

Every year, a considerable amount of  Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is lost by the Turkish Cypriot community (TCc) to scrap yards. Discarding equipment to scrap yards rather than separating and recovering valuable parts and/or parts with dangerous materials has a direct impact on the environment; this is a challenge for all WEEE EPR systems in the EU.

The need for a feasibility study in this area was crucial, as an opportunity for both communities to cooperate was predicted. With excess capacity for the treatment of WEEE in the Greek Cypriot community (GCc), the lack of such treatment capacity in the Turkish Cypriot community would be a prime case for cooperation between Turkish Cypriot (TC) and Greek Cypriot (GC) stakeholders. With the development of a collection mechanism, appliances from TC suppliers and/ or consumers can be collected and transported according to the Green Line Trade (GLT) agreement directly to licensed GC waste operators for treatment. 

The objective of the Action, as described by the Technical Committee, was to:

• Research on the values of WEEE to be targeted 

• Locating TC depot locations and getting commitments for their development and operations

• Examining the transportation issues and costs, including the GLR

• Agree pricing and obtain letter of intent from GC WEEE operators

• Economic and financial analysis of preliminary study

Result

Technical Committee on Economics and Commercial Matters have identified an opportunity where one environmental problem could be solved through cooperation between WEEE operators in each community, even resulting in mutually beneficial economic gains.  

This feasibility study showed that under certain conditions, WEEE operators can benefit from trading WEEE from the TCc to the GCc. This feasibility study also analysed and stated that WEEE in TCc can be traded under the Green Line Trade agreement to the GCc. This aspect is important as if this feasibility is realized, this not only mutually benefit operators in both communities by improving GLT but also solve a critical environmental risk in TCc. Moreover, the written/signed commitment letters collected from GC and TC operators indicate a genuine interest to cooperate on this area. 

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