In the past few years, Erion participated in 11 EU funded projects and is still contributing to 14, so we were excited to discover the organisation’s mission.
Andrea Centurioni, part of Erion’s Strategic Development & Innovation team, took it upon himself to tell us more about their mission.
Erion is the largest Italian based Extended Producer Responsibility system ensuring the waste management and regulatory compliance for more than 2,500 actors: producers of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), batteries and accumulators, packaging, textiles and tobacco products.
One of my main responsibilities at Erion is researching for innovation applicable to our waste streams. The GRINNER project fits this bill perfectly as we are still looking for ways to prevent fire accidents at treatment plants. The technology developed will also be beneficial for reducing impurities inside the output fraction obtained by the treatment of e-waste and caused by the presence of batteries inside them.
In order to reach this goal, Erion is sharing its expertise and information sourced from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) treatment operators about state of the art technologies and WEEE to facilitate the scanning and imaging of batteries within a variety of waste electrical and electronic equipment. Benefitting from its large stakeholder network, Erion will also play a key role in sharing best practices with actors on the Italian market.
Erion also puts great emphasis on educating Italian citizens through public campaigns such as “Riciclare I RAEE è una bella storia!” featuring traditional fairy tale characters ready to recycle or the below added documentary on circular economy, titled “Materia Viva”.