Watch IURC?s LA Webbinar #14 “Repair, Recycle, Re-use: International experiences on the upcycling of electronic waste”

On April 25th, IURC Latin America held its webinar #14 “Repair, Recycle, Re-use: International experiences on the upcycling of electronic waste”.

The webinar sought to share inspiration about circular economy best practices, focused on the re-use, recycling, and repair of electronic waste and other materials. It discussed three international experiences (Essen, Fortaleza, and San Diego) on the creation of recycling centers and related repairing initiatives to highlight opportunities and challenges linked to upcycling of materials. The webinar also introduced the IURC-LA Regional event co-organised with Fortaleza’s municipality on May 4rth and 5th, that will be the first technical encounter of the “EU-Brazil Circular Economy Solutions” and provide an opportunity to exchange about best practices on sustainable innitiatives.

The event began with Annika Lücking (Essen) intervention to introduce the Repair Cafés initiative, which are centre for social encounter that encourage citizen to bring their defective devices to centres where they can be repaired instead of discarted.  Shelby Buso then presented San Diego?s climate action plan to achieve Zero emissions by 2035, which will be promoted through waste management regulation and recycling interventions. Kenneth Prue ofurther explained iSan Diego’s commitment and their innitiatives to raise awareness around the relevance of adequately disposing and sorting waste. Victor Macedo introduced Fortaleza?s Technological Reconditioning Center, a project that connects citizens and companies with defective electronic devices in order to recondition them and offer them to low-income students. Finally, Felix Schaffland highlighted the environmental relevance of recycling electronic waste and different incentives provided by the city of Essen in this regard.

Participants from 21 cities and 11 countries joined the webinar and participated in the discussion to find better circular economy solutions and collaborate on creating more sustainable cities.

Watch or rewatch the webinar here