THE ROLE OF INFORMAL SECTOR WITHIN WEEE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: A ROMANIAN PERSPECTIVE

The waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are characterized by a profound dynamism due to the pace of growth of waste quantities generated, but also because of the continuous diversification of equipment sold as an effect of the technical progress and the growth of living standards. WEEE is characterized by two main attributes: it is hazardous, due to its content of toxic substances, but at the same time it is valuable, due to the content of precious and strategic metals. The extraction of these elements is especially critical in terms of environmental and health hazards during dismantling and processing. On the other hand, in practice, there are economic, environmental, and social advantages associated with informal sector. The researches indicate that the main obstacle to better manage WEEE in the developing countries is lake of environmental laws and, particularly, of control instruments regarding the informal sector. In Romania, the emergence and the development of WEEE management system has been stimulated by the need to align to the European Commission directive. Because the system has not yet reached maturity the share of informal sector in total WEEE activities is significant. The paper begins with characteristics of informal sector as a component of WEEE management systems and then presents the state of research in this field. In the next section is summarized the situation of Romania regarding the management of electronic waste, and the last section addresses the role of the informal sector from the Romanian perspective.