Electronics, online buyers are entitled to take back used equipment (but don't know it)
E-commerce platforms have an obligation to guarantee service. But only 31% of Italians know this, according to an Ipsos survey for the WEEE Coordination Centre
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Those who buy electronics online to replace their old hoover, or their broken smartphone, are entitled to take back their used equipment: e-commerce shops are in fact obliged to take back household WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment), after the purchase of a new product by the consumer (so-called one-for-one take-back). The problem is that most buyers do not know this.
The obligations of e-commerce
Only 31% of Italians are aware that one-to-one pick-up extends beyond physical shops to online channels. And 54% are aware that it is a free service. Yet while for large appliances the purchase choice is mainly made in physical shops, for consumer electronics digital platforms account for about half of the transactions.
These are some of the numbers that emerged from the Ipsos Doxa Italia survey on consumers' experience of the delivery of this waste, carried out for the Centro Coordinamento Raee, the body that oversees the operation of the system and the various consortia involved in disposal.
Knowledge of services
One of the critical issues for proper collection, which contributes to an estimated loss of 400 thousand tonnes of e-waste per year, is the lack of awareness among citizens. Awareness of the services - provided for by Legislative Decree 49/2014 - of one-for-one and one-for-zero take-back of WEEE (whereby the consumer can deliver a household appliance up to 25 cm to a point of sale of at least 400 m2 without any obligation to buy it again) remains limited: 55% of the sample declares not to know about them or only superficially, while only 16% claim to be fully informed. For one-to-one, 44% do not know what it is and only 12% know how it works, while 13% have used it in the 12 months prior to the interview.
According to the Ipsos survey, 59% of purchases are to replace an old appliance, which is only successfully taken back in 53% of cases. The share rises as the size of the appliance increases (reaching 74% for cold and climate).
