Small electrical equipment and small IT equipment includes a large variety of items, such as computers, printers, tablets, mobile phones, vacuum cleaners, toasters, lamps, radios, cameras, toys with electrical components, among many others.
This equipment undergoes the following treatment process:
After being collected from the Electrão network's collection sites, the waste is transported to the reception and treatment centres responsible for processing it.
Small electrical and IT equipment undergoes a primary sorting, is weighed and stored while awaiting the appropriate treatment process.
Small equipment is dismantled by specialised technicians who separate components such as batteries, circuit boards, motors, transformers and other materials. Mandatory removal components such as batteries or cables are removed and other fractions such as steel, aluminium, plastic or glass are separated.
Equipment is fragmented using mechanical processes to break it down into smaller fragments, making it easier to separate by type of material and to access specific components within the equipment.
The fragments obtained in the previous process are separated according to their physical characteristics (such as ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and plastics). Some will benefit from specific treatment and/or should not be fragmented.
The remaining fractions go through a grinder that reduces the equipment into smaller fractions that are easier to separate in subsequent facilities. Several types of separation processes are used:
The various materials are processed to obtain raw materials that can be reused.
