Page 64 - Implementation of the ITU-T International Standards for the Sustainable Management of Electrical and Electronic Equipment: On the road to a circular economy in Argentina

Implementation of the ITU-T International Standards for the Sustainable Management of
Electrical and Electronic Equipment: On the road to a circular economy in Argentina

4 WEEE Management Systems: Challenges, opportunities and

lessons learned

Argentina has made progress in consolidating a
sustainable WEEE management system based
on actions, programmes, projects, and activities
for strengthening, training, consolidating,
and providing technical assistance, executing
and implementing policies related to the
management of WEEE.

Act 25.916 on Minimum Environmental
Protection Requirements for the Integral
Management of Household Waste of 2004
has been a milestone in the WEEE integral
management strategy. However, the absence
of related regulations led to interpretation
conflicts with Act 24.051 on Hazardous Waste of
1991, which was extensively regulated, as to whether the waste generator should be the subject
of one or the other regulations, and thus classify the waste as hazardous or non-hazardous. On
November 28, 2022, when the present work was completed, Decree 779 was issued, which
regulates Act 25.916.
The implementation of Recommendation ITU-T L.1031 with regards to the development of WEEE
inventories has identified challenges and opportunities to improve targets and achievements
proposed in national policies, as well as in plans, existing regulations, strategies, and related
international objectives that address EPR regulations in each WEEE stream.

The implementation experience offers lessons learned that may be useful to other countries
that may require to development of their national WEEE management systems.

Based on the implementation experience in Argentina, opportunities for improvement were
also identified regarding the drafting and national adaptation of Recommendation ITU-T L.1031.

4.1 Challenges and opportunities

Argentina does not yet have specific WEEE legislation or a legal definition of WEEE. However,
"Substances (e.g., POPs) and components found in WEEE are regulated as hazardous waste"
(see Regional E-waste Monitor for Latin-America: Results for the 13 countries participating in
project UNIDO-GEF 5554E; 2022 UNU-VIE SCYCLE UNITAR UNIDO GEF).

Currently, different inventory methodologies are used, including the UNU one. However,
information on imports, exports and national production of EEE has not been systematically
obtained in Argentina, even though there are some official sources of information at the
national level in the National Institute of Statistics (since 2002), in the Secretariat of Industry
and Productive Development of the current Ministry of Economy and in the General Directorate
of Customs. Thus, it is relevant to strengthen access to sources of information on WEEE and
Open Data systems, which would make it possible to identify all the sources of information with
enough validity, whether primary or secondary, for the elaboration of the inventory, flows and
material balances.

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