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Hello everyone!
My name is Jasmin Hoff, M. Sc. in Environmental Process Engineering and Recycling, and I work as a research assistant at the Institute of Processing, Landfill Engineering and Geomechanics (IFAD) at Clausthal University of Technology.
At this point in a conversation, I'm often told: "Oh! I didn't do science at A-level" and then there's an awkward silence. Sometimes, however, the other person is more interested and asks: "And what exactly do you do?" Then I answer: "I'm currently working on the PuRe project, which stands for Public Relation Work for Recycling." At this point at the latest, I lose most of my conversation partners and this is precisely the reason why I chose this project.
PuRe stands for education and public relations work on the topic of recycling, but I will be focusing in particular on the material flow of waste electrical and electronic equipment. But why? Believe it or not, there are currently around 200 million disused cell phones lying in household drawers in Germany!
Who isn't familiar with this situation? The old smartphones of yourself, your parents or siblings as a backup in the living room drawer or the old, heavy washing machine in the basement that has been there for years. People often say to me: "They don't bother anyone there." That's true, but my aim is to increase the collection rate of used electrical and electronic appliances in our region.
What does that mean? The legal minimum collection rate is currently 65%. In order to comply with this legal requirement, every resident would have to dispose of around twice as much old electrical and electronic equipment per year as is currently handed in.
Only by properly recycling these old appliances will we be able to reintroduce the many valuable materials in these appliances, such as copper, silver and gold, as well as harmful substances such as mercury and lead, into the recycling chain. In this way, we protect resources, the environment and the health of living beings. But where can I dispose of my waste electrical and electronic equipment properly here in the region? This is possible right here in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, for example at the recycling center, repair cafes or at our institute(https://www.ifad.tu-clausthal.de/kontakt).
