Olemic Thommessen, President of the Norwegian Parliament was a guest at Ateliere Fara Frontiere on Tuesday, 23rd of June during a special visit in regards to the WISE WEEE project.
The President of the Parliament was part of a delegation of 12 officials including Ms. Tove Bruvik Westberg, the Norwegian Ambassador in Romania.
The main purpose of the visit was a presentation of the WISE WEEE project, currently under development by Ateliere Fara Frontiere (AFF) in partnership with SINTEF, Norway's most prestigious research institute.
The project leaders from SINTEF were also present for the visit, with project manager Arjan Ciftja and research leader Eivind Øvrelid presenting the technical details of the project. At this stage, the research institute is developing an analysis of techniques for increasing the value extracted from Electric and Electronic Equipment Waste (WEEE) by AFF, the conclusion of which, will lead to new procedures and tools for dismantling PCBs, Hard Disk and Optical Drives and other scraps.
The final objective of the project is to develop a specialized working station for dismantling WEEE, comprised of 6 disadvantaged workers, equipped with state of the art tools, using scientifically proven methods and following the best Health, Safety and Environment procedures and therefore improve efficiency and work quality to a great extent.
The WISE WEEE project also functions as a pilot project for a large European program that shall foresee organizing an integrated system in Europe to efficiently collect valuable rare earth and metals from WEEE, given that Europe has no such natural resources but a very large amount of discarded electronic equipment. As such, SINTEF is willing to implement a multi partners project with major players, which can be a real opportunity in the context of resource scarcity and implementing a circular economy mindset, trying to avoid very costly waste through reuse and recycling in order to increase available resources.
This project will hopefully represent a best practice example that proves that the political and economic issues that are at the root of the problem can be solved with the help of the social economy as the potential jobs created are very suitable for work integration social enterprises. Currently, they are based on high intensity labor and don't require a high level of skill or experience. They can offer a sustainable career path given the changing economy as well as offer a positive outcome, helping the environment and rebuilding confidence and trust in society.
Speaking for the delegation, the President of the Norwegian Parliament, Olemic Thommessen declared himself impressed by the potential of the WISE WEEE project and its focus beyond the economic perspective, which has great potential, and towards social issues, mixing the two for the best use of resources (human and material) where they already exist, addressing on one hand the issue of unemployment and exclusion while also strengthening economic independence.
0 comments:
Post a Comment