Fascination eRecycling at the Bern Sustainability Days
On Saturday, 9 September 2023, the opening festival of the Bern Sustainability Days will take place on Bahnhofplatz in Bern. SENS eRecycling will be on site with the container exhibition "The Mysterious World of Electronic Waste" and will provide up-close insights behind the scenes of recycling companies with virtual reality glasses.
In the spirit of sustainability, our new Circular Platform (currently only in German) will also give you lots of tips and tricks for dealing with electrical appliances and show you why letting go of broken or no longer used appliances is not only good for you, but also for the environment.
Make a contribution - bring back your appliance!
The ERB, Entsorgung + Recycling Stadt Bern, is organising a collection day for mobile phones, laptops and tablets together with the Economic Office on 9 September. According to an estimate by Swico, about ten million old smartphones are lying dormant in Swiss households. The collection day is intended to motivate people to bring their old devices back into the cycle.
By returning used mobile phones and other electronic devices, you make a valuable contribution to reducing CO2. Because electronic devices contain valuable metals such as iron, aluminium, copper, gold, silver and palladium. By recovering these metals, around three million CO2 emissions are saved every year. This is roughly equivalent to the entire freight traffic in Switzerland. When you recycle your electrical appliances, you also ensure that the harmful substances from the appliance are disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.
Immerse yourself in the circular economy
On the collection day, you will also gain insights into the topic of the circular economy. For example, how about leaving your mobile phone to the experts for repair so that its life can be extended? This is exactly what the Bernese start-up Pretty Good specialises in. Because: if all everyday objects in Switzerland were used for one year longer, 1.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases could be saved every year! Pretty Good also has a data protection expert on site at Bahnhofplatz to help you delete your data before you hand in your device.
But repairing and selling are not the only ways to bring a drawer mobile phone or other electronic devices back into the cycle - you can also support the circular economy by returning them to a sales or collection point, as this enables professional recycling. In our exhibition “The fascination of eRecycling” you can learn more about this and dive into the world of eRecycling.
Circular Platform - repair, sell or recycle electrical appliances?
Letting go is good for you and the environment: the new Circular Platform recommends the most sustainable solution for bringing your device back into the cycle. With a few details about the condition and age of the device, various options are suggested to you. Letting go has never been so easy!
Pilot project
Everyday objects that still work or are slightly defective and repairable can be donated at the ERB's two disposal centres. In a pilot project with the Bernese start-up Pretty Good, which will run until the end of the year, the ERB wants to find out whether there is a demand for such an offer among the population and how big the impact on the value chain is.