LIFE Turn to e-circular wins LIFE Award for Circular Economy and Quality of Life

Waste electrical and electronic equipment is the fastest-growing waste stream in the EU, containing hazardous materials that pose environmental and health risks if not properly managed. More than 10 million tonnes of e-waste are dumped across the EU every year, with less than 3% being reused.

LIFE Turn to e-circular - which won the prize for Circular Economy and Quality of Life at the recent LIFE Awards 2026 - set itself a big challenge: to persuade Slovenian consumers - especially families and young people - to cut down on their discarded e-waste. Target groups for the 5-year, €2.2 million project also included businesses, start-ups, media and charities.

Working under the slogan 'I'm Still Useful', the project team set about raising awareness, engaging key stakeholders and creating an e-waste collection and management infrastructure, as well as supporting national Environmental authorities with useful analyses and best practices to improve relevant legislation. 66 'reuse corners' were set up across Slovenia where people could bring unwanted but still useable electrical and electronic devices. These were then refurbished before being sold second-hand. The team also toured the country in a mobile repair van giving new life to worn-out appliances, and set up a Facebook group to exchange opinions and share tips and guidelines for servicing. Guidelines developed by the project were formally adopted by reuse centres and shared with national stakeholders.

'We focused on extending the lifespan of products, increasing reuse and repair, and reducing the generation of e-waste,' says project coordinator Emil Šehić. 'The project brought together various partners and, through awareness-raising, educational activities, and pilot solutions, contributed to more sustainable management of electronic devices.'

By the time the project closed in 2024, the project team noted a significant shift in consumer habits towards repair and reuse. This had lead to 247 tonnes of electronic and electrical equipment saved from the dump, avoiding an estimated 1 835 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions - roughly equivalent to taking 70 city buses off the road for a year..

'The project has brought the circular economy concept into practical reality. We connected hundreds of stakeholders, from users to repair technicians, from non-governmental organisations to policymakers. We also actively contributed to the development of other forms of circular appliance management, including libraries of things, reuse centres and repair cafés,' adds Šehić.

Repair technicians and electrical engineers were encouraged to take part through a series of technician meet-ups. 53 repair workshops and 13 repair cafés were established, and 102 YouTube videos produced showing people how to repair their own equipment at home under the series title Itak, da se da! (Sure, you can!). The team also organised 2 start-up weekends for business students and held 25 educational workshops for young people.

LIFE Turn to e-circular supports the EU's Circular Economy Action Plan, the Waste Framework Directive, Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and Competitiveness Compass.