2022.06.08
Procurement and recycling at APPLiA's annual meeting
APPLiA, the trade association for manufacturers and importers of electrical household appliances founded in 1966, has held its annual meeting where important industry issues such as procurement and recycling were highlighted.
Invited to talk about public procurement was a lawyer Johan Svedberg, Procbid, who supports companies in winning more business in public procurement on a daily basis. He gave us an overview of what the procurement process often looks like and shared several keys to success.
Anyone who has a good knowledge of LOU – the Public Procurement Act – has the best chance of success. Johan recommended being thorough and answering exactly what is requested, asking questions early in the procurement process and being constructive and making suggestions for improvements and helping if, for example, you discover a requirement that is difficult for those responding to meet.
Nordic countries are good at fundraising
When the focus shifted towards recycling, it is Martin Seeger, CEO of El-Kretsen, who was invited. El-Kretsen was formed when producer responsibility was introduced in Sweden and is owned by 19 industry organizations. Thanks to factors such as the fact that we in the Nordic region started collecting early and that we have a collection point for all types of waste, we are today good at it. In 2021, 76,000 tons, which corresponds to almost 11 million products, were collected.
El-Kretsen is working on a pilot project in recycling where the collected items are ”vacuumed” for items that, in terms of energy consumption, can be justified to put back on the market. At the same time, the median age of collected products is high thanks to a well-functioning secondary market such as Blocket and Marketplace, which does not give the impression that we live in the ”throw-away” society that is often talked about.
Component recycling can be a way forward for older products. There has also been a shift in how we view materials from waste to an important resource, with mixed materials, plastics, adhesives and disassembly being challenges that may be solved with smart design and a full life cycle focus. What the challenges will be when today’s smarter products are dismantled and recycled remains to be seen.
