The unusual adventure of the Catalan Recycling Association (ARC) began ten years ago in Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales), and it is also a story around the Riera family.
It is the founder's daughter, Joanna, who tells us about it.
“At first, it was my father's idea.
He was a cook but did computer repairs on the right and on the left.
Then other family members joined the project and we created the association with two ambitions, recycling and reducing the digital divide.
Joanna Riera is now its treasurer.
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Over the years, the activity has taken on an odd scale.
“Today, we recycle around 100 tonnes of computer equipment per year that we collect in companies, in recycling centers or that we receive from individuals who come to our two premises in Prades or Perpignan.
»Once collected, the equipment is tested, then sent for dismantling for recycling or repaired to return to the circuit.
This is one of the ways they have found to fight against the digital divide, by providing access to functional IT equipment at low prices - a few tens of euros -, or by welcoming the most distant people to its premises. of these tools to help them in their efforts.
The association also provides a troubleshooting mission.
Demand has changed a lot
In ten years, in IT perhaps more than elsewhere, things are changing quickly… “So yes, at the start, we mainly had cathode-ray tube screens, and it was not easy to make people understand that we could recover, repair, faced with the flow of new products, ”she recalls.
“Today, it is mainly laptops that we deal with.
"
The association is also a good observer of the computer skills of populations.
"Demand has changed a lot in ten years, at the start, we had audiences who were completely left in front of a computer, this is less the case now", testifies Joanna Riera.
The ARC team in Perpignan now has six employees and can rely on a network of around twenty volunteers.
And the ARC was structured, it now has six employees, can rely on a network of twenty volunteers and has nearly 6,000 members in the Pyrénées-Orientales.
It also has two
fab labs
in Perpignan and Prades which provide 3D printers, but has also developed training and initiations for the youngest.
And for the future?
“We have several projects, to go further in the recycling of plastics, to recycle certain materials ourselves and we also want to develop a
wood-lab
providing tools for working with wood.
"
http://association-de-recyclage-catalan.fr