Empa as the Technical Control Board for SWICO Recycling
Empa is a multidisciplinary research institution for materials science and technology within the ETH network; it has 830 employees at locations in Dübendorf, St. Gallen and Thun. Half a dozen scientists from the division Technology and Society Lab, under the leadership of Martin Eugster, make up the Technical Control Board of SWICO Recycling. Their function is to ensure independent and competent technical oversight of the Swiss take-back system for electrical and electronic equipment.
Diverse Range of Tasks
As the Technical Control Board for SWICO Recycling, Empa oversees the licensing agreements with recycling companies and suggests new recyclers to be brought into the system. It checks their material and goods accounts, their verification of stock flows, their fulfilment of requirements, their extraction and environmentally-safe removal of harmful substances, and their disposal of end products.
Control Tasks in Detail
- Annual inspection of the eight recycling partners and their dismantling operations (at least every 2 years) in relation to processing, transport and storage regulations
- Follow-up of any complaints, oversight of corrective procedures within operations
- Inspection of domestic and foreign recipients of materials from local recycling partners who process end-products
- Implementation and inspection of the material and substance accounts of recycling partners
- Statistical analysis of the material and substance accounts, as well as the amounts of delivered and processed equipment (incl. equipment components) stored, and interpretation of the substance and goods flows with respect to maintaining recycling requirements
- Appraisal of recycling and removal operations through batch tests
- Coordination of control activities with the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), cantonal specialist sites and in particular the Technical Control Board of the Foundation for Disposal Switzerland SENS (Stiftung Entsorgung Schweiz).
- The Technical Control Board of SWICO also takes part in the technical working group of the European WEEE Forum.
