Summary

In Spain, electronic waste is out of control. The amount of discarded electrical and electronic products that goes unrecycled each year could be used to construct a four-meter-high wall spanning the 504-kilometer distance between Madrid and Barcelona. Every year, 600,000 tons of refrigerators, freezers, and television sets are disassembled at unauthorized plants or cannibalized for parts by sledgehammer-wielding mafias. Other times, appliances are dumped on the side of the road or dumped in regular city dumps, despite the fact that they contain highly hazardous pollutants. Furthermore, Spain falls short of the European Union average, with 52% recycled or reused, 8.7% higher than in Spain. The remaining 48% of solid waste is disposed of in landfills (in an inefficient manner), dumped in the environment, or incinerated. The remaining 48% of dumped waste is disposed of in landfills, 7% in land, river, or marine ecosystems, and 1% incinerated.

According to the research report “Spain E-Waste Management Market Overview, 2028," published by Bonafide Research, the market is expected to add USD 0.73 Billion in the upcoming period, 2023–2028. According to the source type, the market consists of Household Appliances such as air conditioners, dishwashers, and induction cookers, among others. Mobile devices, wearables, TVs, set-top boxes, monitors, laptops, tablets, computers, printers, scanners, and so on are all examples of consumer electronics. IT & Telecom Equipment, IT Accessories, PCBs, Digital Boards, Datacenters, Medical Equipment and Accessories are all examples of Industrial Electronics. Household sectors dominate the market since electronic gadgets are needed for almost all household tasks such as cleaning and cooking. Based on the material type such as Metal, Plastic, Glass, and others. Metal material is highly generated from e-waste in spain since e-waste contains numerous valuable, recoverable materials such as aluminum, ferrous metals, copper, gold, and silver. Electronic equipment should be reconditioned, reused, and recycled wherever feasible to preserve natural resources and the energy required to manufacture new electronic equipment from virgin materials. Based on application type there are Trashed and recycled. Recycling e-waste serves a variety of applications. For example, keep such gadgets out of landfills to safeguard human and environmental health. Or retrieving valuable pieces from gadgets and giving manufacturers with recycled metals that may be utilised to construct new goods.

The CWIT consortium's illegal trade in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), whose members include Interpol and United Nations agencies, places Spain at the bottom of Europe's recycling effort, trailing only Romania and Cyprus. According to the CWIT analysis, it is unknown where 80 percent of this garbage finds up, posing major environmental and health hazards as well as economic loss. Spanish appliance manufacturers have been required to handle WEEE recycling, a category that includes everything from medical equipment to heating and cooling installations, home appliances and lamps - in short, almost any product that contains wires or batteries. Last year, ECOLEC, one of the largest SIGs, handled 67,000 tonnes of e-waste, representing 50% of small and large home appliance manufacturers. However, Spain produces more than 750,000 tonnes per year.
One of the dysfunctions in a system riddled with problems is a lack of government action. The Environment Ministry, which only recently responded to questions for this report, claims to have "detected the deficiencies of the management model that has been applied in recent years" and has therefore drafted a new decree that includes "measures that will allow the data about WEEE collection and management to be improved."

The choice of Spain for our analysis is significant for two reasons. First, Spain is currently showing a strong interest in achieving the SDGs. However, despite the fact that national, regional, and local Spanish authorities have been implementing several measures to promote pro-environmental attitudes (such as e-waste separation) for several years now, as we have previously stated, a significant improvement in separate e-waste collection rates is required in Spain (European Commission 2019), and secondly, because Spain is located in the Mediterranean Basin, a region highly exposed to significant environmental risks due to climate change (European Commission 2019).

In Spain, landfills receive 56.7% of garbage, whereas 43.3% is recycled or repurposed. Spain falls short of the European Union average, with 52% of waste recycled or reused, which is 8.7% higher than in Spain. If the circular economy principles were used, the prospects for reusing recognised and measured plastic packaging would account for at least 20% of the existing market. Plastic production is expected to more than double over the next years and nearly quadruple by 2028. Only 14% of all plastic waste generated in the world is collected for recycling.

Some of the E-Waste Management Companies in Spain are Arcediano Recuperaciones, Recytronica, Recycling Raee, Recuintec S.L, Felemamg S.L, Hermanos Marangio, Chatarrerias Txako, Fercometal, Pratgir Reciclatges S.L and many more.

Considered in this report
• Geography: Spain
• Historic year: 2017
• Base year: 2022
• Estimated year: 2023
• Forecast year: 2028

Aspects covered in this report
• Spain E-Waste market with its value and forecast along with its segments
• Various drivers and challenges
• On-going trends and developments
• Top profiled companies
• Strategic recommendation

By Application Type
• Trashed
• Recycled

By Material Type
• Metal
• Plastic
• Glass
• Others

By Source Type
• Household Appliances
• Consumer Electronic
• Industrial Electronic

The approach of the report:
This report consists of a combined approach of primary as well as secondary research. Initially, secondary research was used to get an understanding of the market and listing out the companies that are present in the market. The secondary research consists of third-party sources such as press releases, annual report of companies, analysing the government generated reports and databases. After gathering the data from secondary sources primary research was conducted by making telephonic interviews with the leading players about how the market is functioning and then conducted trade calls with dealers and distributors of the market. Post this we have started doing primary calls to consumers by equally segmenting consumers in regional aspects, tier aspects, age group, and gender. Once we have primary data with us we have started verifying the details obtained from secondary sources.

Intended audience
This report can be useful to industry consultants, manufacturers, suppliers, associations & organizations related to E-Waste Management market, government bodies and other stakeholders to align their market-centric strategies. In addition to marketing & presentations, it will also increase competitive knowledge about the industry.