The City of Brno is cooperating with the waste prevention centres RetroUse for the fourth year in a row. As this is a useful project, the city council has approved the extension of the contract indefinitely. At the same meeting in late December, the council launched a cooperation with ELEKTROWIN, the company that runs “I Am Back”, a project to collect functioning electronic appliances. Both projects are designed to have positive ecological and social impacts. Photo: Retro-Use information office on Orlí. Credit: ZM / Brno Daily.
Brno, Dec 30 (BD) – “The idea is to ensure the reuse of functional items made primarily before 1989, which people no longer need at home, but are sorry to throw away. Objects of historical value are preferentially offered to museum collections, and other things will then find their use, for example, in theatres, schools, literature clubs, and so on,” said the First Deputy Mayor of Brno Petr Hladík (KDU-ČSL).
In cooperation with the city, the public benefit corporation AMERFO (formerly the American Fund) has opened two Retro-Use waste-prevention centers since 2016, on Francouzská and Husova (in the atomic shelter 10-Z) and an information center on Orlí (title photo), where visitors can learn more about waste prevention projects, drop off small items, and take a souvenir item away in a gift box. At the last meeting of the City Council in December, city representatives decided to extend the contract with AMERFO indefinitely.
Retro-Use aims to reuse old and vintage objects that are still functional, but which are no longer needed at home. Objects accepted by the waste prevention information center should be made before 1989.
At the same meeting, Brno City Council approved a cooperation agreement on the “I am Back” project between the City of Brno and ELEKTROWIN, which operates a collective system for the return, separate collection, treatment, recovery and disposal of electrical and electronic waste. The project will operate from the waste collection center at Vídeňská – Jílová, as there is sufficient space for the collection of selected electrical appliances.
The “I Am Back” project works by accepting fully functioning electrical appliances delivered by their owners to a designated waste collection center, where they hand over the appliances and sign a receipt, leaving them for reuse. The accepted appliances are assessed on site by a service technician from ELEKTROWIN, who will decide whether they are suitable for the project. The appliances can then be redistributed to the places where they are needed most, such as childrens’ homes, homeless shelters or other selected organizations.
Get the news first! Sign up for free to our daily newsletter here. Top stories of the day in your mailbox every morning.
