President of Norwegian Parliament visits Ateliere Fara Frontiere

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.

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Presedintele Parlamentului Norvegian viziteaza AFF

Olemic Thommessen, Presedintele Parlamentului Norvegian a fost oaspetele nostru de onoare la atelier marti, 23 Iunie cand a venit pentru o vizita speciala in cadrul proiectului WISE WEEE.

Presedintele a venit insotit de o delegatie de 12 oficiali printre care se numara si Ambasadoarea Norvegiei in Romania, Excelenta sa Doamna Tove Bruvik Westberg.

Scopul principal al vizitei a fost prezentarea proiectului WISE WEEE, care este in curs de dezvoltare prin parteneriatul Ateliere Fara Frontiere cu SITEF, unul dintre cele mai prestigioase centre de cercetare norvegiene.

Responsabilii de proiect din partea SINTEF au fost de asemenea prezenti pentru vizita. Managerul de proiect Arjian Ciftja si cercetatorul sef Eivind Øvrelid au prezentat detaliile tehnice ale proiectului. In acest stadiu al proiectului, institutul de cercetare este in curs de a dezvolta o analiza a tehnicilor pentru cresterea valorii extrase din Deseurile de Echipamente Electrice si Electronice (DEEE) de catre AFF, concluzia acestei analize fiind calea catre noi proceduri si unelte pentru dezmembrarea placilor cu circuite, hard discurilor si unitatilor optice cat si alte componente.

Obiectivul final al proiectului este de a dezvolta un punct de lucru pentru dezmembrarea DEEE-urilor compus din 6 lucratori defavorizati, echipat cu unelte de inalta performanta, folosind tehnici testate stiintific si urmand cele mai bune proceduri de protectie a mediului, sanatate si securitate a muncii, astfel imbunatatind eficienta si calitatea muncii in mod semnificativ.

Proiectul WISE WEEE functioneaza de asemenea ca proiect pilot pentru un program European la scara larga care va prevedea organizarea unui sistem integrat in Europa pentru colectarea eficienta a mineralelor si metalelor rare din DEEE-uri, in contextul in care Europa nu are astfel de resurse naturale si are o cantitate foarte mare de echipamente electronice de casat. Astfel, SINTEF doreste sa implementeze un proiect cu mai multi parteneri majori ceea ce ar putae fi o adevarata oportunitate in acest context al resurselor limitate si al dezvoltarii si implementarii economiei circulare in incercarea de a evita pierderea deseurilor costisitoare prin reutilizare si reciclare pentru a spori resursele disponibile.

Speram ca acest proiect va fi un exemplu de bune practici care demonstreaza ca subiectele politice si economice care se afla la baza acestei probleme pot fi rezolvate cu ajutorul economiei sociale mai ales prin faptul ca potentialele locuri de munca generate sunt foarte potrivite integrarii in munca prin antreprenoriat social deoarece aceste joburi se bazeaza pe un nivel sporit de intensitate in lucru si nu necesita un nivel inalt de expertiza sau experienta. Acestea pot oferi o cale sustenabila de dezvoltare in piata muncii luand in considerare schimbarile din economie si de asemenea ofera o perspectiva pozitiva prin protejarea mediului si reconstruirea increderii in sine si in societate.

Presedintele Parlamentului Norvegian a vorbit in numele intregii delegatii cand s-a declarat impresionat de potentialul proiectului WISE WEEE si viziunea sa dincolo de perspectiva economica, care oricum are un potential bun, catre solutionarea problemelor sociale, amestecand cele doua perspective pentru cea mai buna utilizare a resurselor (umane si materiale) unde acestea exista deja. Astfel, proiectul raspunde problemei somajului si marginalizarii in timp ce intareste independenta economica.

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Kick-off Meeting

On Friday 12^th of September 2014, the Kick-off Meeting of the bilateral project W.I.S.E WEEE – Green Environmental Technology took place at Ateliera Fara Frontiere (AFF) in Bucharest, Romania. Two research scientists from SINTEF Materials and Chemistry in Norway, which is the project partner, participated in the meeting to draw up the project and to set up the work plan for the following 2 years.

The main objective of WISE WEEE – Green Environmental Technology, led and coordinated by AFF, is to strengthen the added local value of AFF's WEEE recycling activity.

AFF is a Romanian  Work Integration Social Enterprise (W.I.S.E) founded as an  NGO in 2008, that has been operating in Bucharest since 2009. The main goal of the AFF is to (re)integrate people living under undesirable social conditions into the job market and finally into a normal life. Such people are employed to carry out different economic activities. One of the activities is collecting, dismantling and refurbishing the WEEE (Waste of Electrical and Electronical Equipments), such as personal computers, printers, mobile phones and tv sets.

The SINTEF Group is the largest independent contract research organization in Scandinavia with more than 2000 employees, of which the SINTEF Foundation has approximately 1200. Fields of research are technology, natural science, medicine and social science. SINTEF Materials and Chemistry – a research division within the SINTEF Group – is heavily involved in, and puts strategic empasis on sustainable recycling and recovery of waste.

Through „W.I.S.E WEEE - Green Environmental Technology” project and with the help of the Norwegian partner SINTEF, AFF aims to raise the productivity and value of the recyling activities and at the same time facilitate  work integration of socially disadvantaged people. It will help AFF to increase the value from the WEEE scraps they dismantle and to employ more socially disadvantaged people, which will give them better employment perspectives after the period in the workshop. The project furthermore contributes to the improvement of the recycling chain in Romania, preventing the export of valuable scraps abroad, as they can be treated locally by a proper process targeting the critical raw materials as specified by the EU directives.

The project is financed through the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (Norway Grants), contributing to reduce economic and social disparities and to strengthening bilateral relations between Romania and Norway.

Inspection of collected electrical and electronic scrap during the kick-off meeting at the workshop of Ateliera Fara Frontier by SINTEF researchers. (From left to right: Senior Scientist Dr. Martin Bellmann from SINTEF, Director of Ateliera Fara Frontiere Patrick Ouriaghli and Research Scientist Dr. Arjan Ciftja from SINTEF).

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