All categories were represented in the collection; small electrical equipment, televisions and computer monitors. On average, every citizen of the Czech Republic sorted approximately 1,74 kilograms of wasted electrical and electronic equipment.

The volume of small-scale electricity collection is increasing year-on-year. The most frequently thrown articles include electric kettles, chargers, radios, small vacuum cleaners and irons. “Small appliances can be thrown away more easily due to the increasing number of red containers. Their number has risen again compared to the last year, currently there are 3,586 of them in the whole Czech Republic, ie 200 more than last year,” said Karel Krejsa, General Manager at ASEKOL, and added: “Everyone can easily find out where the nearest red container is using webpage www.cervenekontejnery.cz.”

In addition, collecting into red containers helps to the disabled people. Since 2015, ASEKOL has been cooperating with the National Council for Disabled Persons of the Czech Republic, which supports the employment of people with disabilities. For each kilogram of electrical appliances thrown into the red container, ASEKOL pays one crown to the the National Council for Disabled Persons. “During the entire period of our cooperation, we have thus contributed more than 4 million crowns and helped disabled people to get new jobs,” says Karel Krejsa.

Except just educational and charity activities, ASEKOL has focused more on current issues of the circular economy. The only appropriate approach to nature conservation is consistent sorting, quality recycling, re-putting recycled materials into circulation and, above all, reducing consumption and thus production. “A lot of customers keep their old electrical appliances at home in case the new ones will be damaged. That’s why we decided to connect with the Repair Shop project. It is important to inform how to properly throw out old electrical appliances if repair is no longer possible,” adds Karel Krejsa.

The company Repair Shop currently associates the largest network of small repairers and professional services in the Czech Republic. “We started with a website that simply connects customers with repairers.Today we are able to find repairers for anything repairable. Currently, reparability on our website is almost 60 percent thanks to better targeting and a broad network,” says Jan Charvát, founder of the Repair Shop project.

As a partner of ASEKOL, project authors will work together to ensure that wasted products do not end up in landfills but on recycling lines. “Last year we collected almost 18,500 tons of wasted electrical appliances, anyway – we know that especially small household electrical appliances often remain unused in czech households. Recycling helps to use individual materials again, in this way up to 95 percent of materials can be recycled,” explains Karel Krejsa.