In 2024 Electrão had the privilege of seeing its activity in the management of three of the recycling systems in which it participates renewed through the publication of the new licenses: packaging; batteries and used electrical equipment.
Message from the CEO
Pedro Nazareth
- 20 Years and a New Licensing Cycle
- How Will We Manage Our Waste?
- Raising Barriers to the Single Market for Waste Treatment
2025: 20 YEARS AND A NEW LICENSING CYCLE
2025 marked an important milestone for Electrão, as it coincided with the celebration of 20 years of activity. To mark this date, we developed a set of initiatives, highlighted by the anniversary event. It was a moment of celebration and recognition in which Electrão revisited its past and acknowledged the contribution of all those who helped build what the association is today.
We invited everyone to reflect on the progress achieved over the past two decades. We engaged recycling and logistics partners, municipalities, producer companies and members, as well as public administration bodies, Electrão’s governing bodies, and the entire constellation of stakeholders with whom the association interacts. Honouring the past means holding the present accountable for addressing the many challenges Portugal faces in waste management.
2025 was also marked by the start of a new cycle of three licenses granted for the management of electrical and electronic equipment; batteries; and packaging.
Within the electrical and electronic equipment recycling system, the scope of activity in Portugal remained unchanged, although changes are expected. It should be noted that the electrical and electronic component is now present in an increasingly wide range of products, and the future of this waste stream may include new equipment such as wind turbines and subsea cables. The expectation is that growing consumption and this waste stream will increasingly put pressure on end-of-life infrastructure.
With regard to the battery recycling system, there are significant changes to highlight, in line with the guidelines of the Batteries Regulation. Electrão had four of the five subsystems it applied for renewed, namely portable, industrial, light mobility, and electric vehicle batteries. Excluded was the category of starter batteries, which is still expected to be incorporated into the waste management responsibility transfer service provided to producer companies, in order to strengthen the value proposition portfolio.
The license for packaging management was also renewed, with an expanded scope to include non-urban packaging and large producers, as предусмотрed in the Packaging Regulation.
This new 10-year licensing cycle—the longest ever—is a sign of trust, but also a clear invitation to the next stage of growth and transformation of the sector, which must now move forward.
Also in 2025, a highlight was the start of operations of ÚNICO – Association for the Management of Single-Use Plastics, which began the first year of implementing its license related to the management of tobacco products.
Challenges of Emerging Waste Streams
The 20-year celebration was an opportunity for Electrão to reaffirm its strategy of serving producer companies—importers, manufacturers, and retailers—by representing them in the management of different national recycling systems and promoting economic efficiency through operational synergies between waste streams.
Companies are increasingly being called upon to take an active role in the collection, recycling, or end-of-life management of their products, through systems based on the principle of extended producer responsibility. The country needs this support to finance and operationalise the diversion of waste from landfills and to foster new collection and recycling chains.
There are several challenges facing organisations across different sectors of economic activity, notably in the management of textiles, furniture, and mattresses, which are already subject to selective collection by municipalities in Portugal, even though their recycling systems have not yet been fully implemented.
Electrão has been involved from the outset, together with a number of organisations, in the European harmonisation and implementation of new collection, recycling, and end-of-life management systems for emerging waste streams. It is therefore well prepared to support the country in creating these new systems, which are strategic for reducing pressure on landfills, increasing material recovery rates, and reducing pressure on environmental resources.
Compensation Values: by SGRU, by Service Quality, and by Collection Type
The significant increase in compensation values to recover the costs of Urban Waste Management Systems (SGRU), which ensure the collection and sorting of packaging waste, was another important change to note in 2025.
This was a drastic increase, poorly planned and lacking transparency for companies. Nevertheless, Electrão has always acknowledged that these values had long needed updating. However, it is important to highlight three fundamental aspects that we have defended from the outset and which have not yet been addressed.
First, the way in which cost recovery for urban waste management systems is calculated. We believe that using average values as a reference and grouping systems according to their degree of rurality may create inequalities and undesirable effects on the intended increase in selective collection.
Second, compensation values should take into account the quality of service. Similar to the technical specifications for packaging waste—which allow the assessment of the quality of sorted materials—it would be important to have a service quality index for waste collection at the local level. This does not currently exist, whether in terms of the condition of recycling containers, fill levels, or cleanliness of surrounding areas. These indicators should be linked to the respective payments made to the systems. It is unthinkable that this is still not the case.
Finally, and no less importantly, compensation values should also reflect the different collection methods used by the systems, distinguishing, for example, those that provide specific services such as door-to-door collection.
How Will We Manage Our Waste?
Despite a very valid discussion throughout 2025 regarding the type of strategy for waste treatment infrastructure in Portugal, the truth is that the country has been slow to make fundamental decisions in this area and to decide how it wants to manage its urban waste in the future.
Once the PAPERSU (multi-municipal, inter-municipal, and municipal action plans) were consolidated and analyzed, a national orientation for the sector was necessary—communicated transparently—on the decisions made and what is intended to be implemented in terms of treatment infrastructure.
For example, there is no evidence that the consolidation, scaling, and efficiency of the country’s packaging sorting facilities have been promoted. We continue to see individual initiatives from the systems, which naturally respond to local needs.
On the other hand, this delay is putting pressure on the sector on multiple fronts. There is great difficulty in finding landfill solutions, whether for urban or industrial waste. No matter how much recycling exists in Portugal, there will always be fractions that require technical confinement in landfills, and the country must act quickly to alleviate this operational and economic pressure.
Naturally, waste prevention and recycling are critical. Extended producer responsibility is a key partner in this process. Future recycling systems will also contribute to easing these constraints.
While it is not yet entirely clear what should be done or how waste treatment could be financed, 2025 closed with another uncertainty regarding how the Waste Management Fee (TGR) should be calculated. The aggravating factor is that part of these financial resources—which have now been drastically increased—will be diverted from the waste management sector.
Ecomodulation: Another Layer of National Complexity
2026 will be the year that ecomodulation is applied in Portugal. From the outset, Electrão has taken a position against any ecomodulation initiative that is not part of a European framework, with particular relevance for electrical products under the Ecodesign Directive. We believe that product design and environmental performance issues should be addressed within this context.
Through the implementation of ecomodulation, producer companies—whether in electrical equipment, batteries, or packaging—will incur a set of administrative costs and enter a complex process to determine the environmental attributes of the products they place on the market and declare them in an increasingly complex grid. In doing so, they may benefit from a discount ranging from 8% to 10% of the corresponding financial contribution.
This is a costly and burdensome process, which may lead to different implementation models among management entities and could create competitive imbalances between producer companies. In any case, Electrão will naturally act as a promoter of the Administration’s intentions and will strive to help its member companies implement this declarative process as effectively as possible.
Raising Barriers to the Single Market for Waste Treatment
At the European level, a set of initiatives is underway within the framework of the circular economy package, aiming to reduce some of the operational and administrative barriers that still persist between Member States and disrupt the functioning of the single market—particularly in the waste sector.
Even today, there are administrative difficulties and significant financial costs associated with transporting waste across borders, even between European Union countries. This issue is particularly relevant for Portugal, which is facing a shortage of treatment and recycling capacity for certain types of waste. The need to rely on facilities abroad is generating additional contextual costs linked to cross-border waste shipments—constraints that, in the logic of the single market, should not exist.
Moreover, there is fragmentation within the single market, as certain types of waste do not have the same status recognized across all countries. This weakens the concept of a unified European market, especially in the waste management sector, which is already subject to a heavy regulatory and administrative burden.
The Strategic Centrality of the Recycling Sector
The current global context, marked by significant instability, continues to place recycling at the center of European strategy. The sector positions itself as the natural partner to ensure Europe’s autonomy with regard to certain critical materials needed for the production of new products that are not available within European territory.
The recovery targets for these materials have already been defined together with the collection and recycling sector, particularly in the area of electrical and electronic equipment, which is gaining renewed importance.
We cannot continue mixing components containing neodymium rare earths with common ferrous waste, diluting and losing access to a critical material. This type of inefficiency will need to be addressed over time, but we believe the policy framework will intensify this shift by placing increasing pressure on this area of collection and recycling.
In this domain as well, it is not possible to continue developing a strategy based solely on selective collection, which does not always meet expectations despite two decades of awareness-raising efforts. Management entities and their partners must also focus on the unsorted waste stream, where many critical materials still remain, and recover from this base the materials needed to move toward self-sufficiency in the supply of materials that Europe requires—while simultaneously addressing public health and environmental protection concerns.
Message from the director-general of electrics and batteries
Ricardo Furtado
The selective collection of electrical equipment reached a new high in 2024. This year, Electrão collected and sent more than 36,000 tons of used electrical equipment for recycling. This is an increase of 31% compared to 2023, when more than 27,000 tons were collected.
A new level in the collection and recycling of used electrical equipment
In 2025, the year in which Electrão celebrated two decades of activity, we achieved operational results that represent a new level in the systems for collecting and recycling electrical equipment and batteries in Portugal.
Across all electrical equipment, we exceeded 45,000 tonnes collected and sent for recycling, the highest value since the system was created, equivalent to around 4.5 kilograms per citizen. This performance represents a 26% increase compared to 2024, reinforcing the consolidation of our operational capacity.
Own collections, carried out at points directly managed by Electrão, once again played a decisive role: they accounted for 84% of the total sent for recycling, strengthening the continuous growth trajectory of the operational network, which has nearly tripled since 2019.
Large household appliances continue to be the category with the greatest weight, totaling 22,909 tonnes, a significant increase of 51% compared to the previous year. This is followed by small household appliances, temperature regulation equipment, IT and telecommunications equipment, monitors and televisions, and finally lamps.
The expansion of the collection network was once again one of the key drivers of this growth: in 2025, we provided 15,522 collection points, 1,919 more locations than the previous year.
This is complemented by strong campaigns such as Quartel Electrão and Escola Electrão, which continue to mobilize the entire community, as well as the door-to-door collection project for large household appliances, now available in 12 municipalities in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and the Oeste region. This initiative is particularly relevant in combating the parallel market, one of the system’s biggest constraints, which continues to divert equipment into informal channels that should instead be properly decontaminated and recycled.
The contribution of waste management operators within the Electrão network was also significant, enabling the redirection of a substantial quantity of equipment, equivalent to 5,809 tonnes, for treatment and recycling.
It is also important to highlight the contribution of distribution partners, whose growing involvement in collection has been key to the results achieved. They form an essential link in the system and act as a privileged point of contact with consumers and the general public.
Reuse remains a priority. In coordination with our partners, equipment with the potential for a second life was identified and recovered, resulting in 1,632 tonnes reused in 2025. Projects such as the REPARA Academy and the OndeDoar.pt platform reinforce this strategic axis, helping extend the lifespan of equipment and reduce waste generation.
All of this was achieved in a year marked by significant operational constraints, namely insufficient treatment capacity among national operators and delays in issuing Transboundary Waste Movement authorizations, factors that affected predictability in managing this flow, created storage difficulties, and increased costs.
Collection of batteries also grew significantly
In the area of batteries, we collected and sent 1,705 tonnes for recycling in 2025, an increase of 25% compared to 2024.
The most significant growth was seen in industrial batteries, which increased by 26%, from 957 to 1,201 tonnes. Portable batteries also recorded a notable increase of around 17%, with 481 tonnes collected and sent for recycling.
Batteries from electric vehicles and light transport devices accounted for 1% of the total collected, at 23.3 tonnes, reflecting evolving urban mobility patterns.
The number of battery collection points also showed strong growth: in 2025, there were 10,307 collection sites, 572 more than the previous year. These results were only possible thanks to the involvement of municipalities, operators, companies, distributors, and other system partners.
Every battery disposed of in the correct place protects the environment and also contributes to European autonomy in an increasingly competitive global context. Europe aims to ensure that 25% of critical raw materials come from recycling, which requires identifying, separating, and processing waste that was previously lost in conventional streams.
It is important to note that lithium-ion batteries pose a significant fire risk when damaged or improperly discarded. Raising awareness about safe disposal is therefore essential to protect people, infrastructure, and the environment.
Electrão intends to continue investing in network expansion, proximity to the population, the technical robustness of its systems, and the promotion of solutions that extend the lifespan of equipment while safeguarding public health and environmental protection.