(Netherlands) – 2018 Conference reconfirms EucoLight commitment to making the Circular Economy a reality for lighting. 

EucoLight, the European association of collection and recycling organisations for WEEE lamps and lightings, held their third conference at Sassenheim, the Netherlands, which gathered 70 delegates from the community of producers’ responsibility organisations for lighting. Latest developments in collection and treatment of end-of-life lighting products were discussed, as the transition towards a circular economy in the sector gathers pace.

Delegates were presented with insights on market trends and expected evolution of lighting waste flows and on LED technology by industry experts.

There are a number of technical challengers for more circularity in the lighting business and the collection of used lighting products is subject to targets imposed by the legislation. However, collection rates can be improved through efficiency of operations, change in consumer behaviour and policy mechanisms, as was demonstrated during the conference.

LED lamps currently represent less than 2% of the waste stream, with their long life, the industry has time to prepare for this new type of waste. To this end, delegates learnt about the technical composition and options for future of LEDs and LED recycling techniques.

An important aspect for EucoLight members in achieving a circular economy in lighting, is ensuring a level playing field. Delegates strongly supported some of the new extended producer responsibility requirements in the EU waste package, and also called for more action against online freeriders. Nigel Harvey, CEO of Recolight and a director of EucoLight commented: “We are pleased to be working with EucoLight to address non-compliance associated with online sales. We think that the adoption in the UK of the amendments to the Waste Directive will help achieve this.”

The third edition of the EucoLight Light Recycling awards took place during the conference. This year the winners included a project focused on the collection of luminaires from LithtRec/Wecycle in The Netherlands, an awareness raising campaign regarding the UK lamp collection target while also promoting free recycling for end users from Recolight, a communication campaign celebrating ten years of Recolamp in Romania, and the foundation of the Lauterer Wettbewerb association in Germany dedicated to detecting and combatting free-riding cases presented by Lightcycle.

The EucoLight General Assembly elected a new board of Directors. Hervé Grimaud from ESR/Récylum will take the role as Chairman, Nigel Harvey of Recolight, Vice-Chairman, Stephan Riemann, from Lightcycle, Treasurer, Tomáš Rychetský from Ekolamp Czech Republic, Secretary, and Ourania Georgoutsakou of LightingEurope from Belgium, member of the Board.

For more information, visit www.recolight.co.uk