Globally, mankind’s environmental credit will be depleted on August 1st, the international organization Global Footprint Network said in a report released on June 5th on World Environment Day.

"After this date, all the energy we use, everything we eat, buy in stores or travel will be borrowed from future generations", the report said.

Global Footprint Network calculates each year the "Earth Overshoot Day", which is the date when mankind begins to live on ecological debt, so it consumes the resources of the coming years. This day symbolically marks the time when population demand is higher than the Earth’s supply, which demonstrates the increase in population consumption over what the Earth can produce.

Earth Overshoot Day, which varies from year to year and depends on how responsible we manage to be, is a ratio between the ecological footprint of human activity and the ability of natural ecosystems to regenerate to absorb the waste produced. It currently takes 19 months for nature to regenerate resources that have been depleted in 12 months, according to studies performed by an international organization in more than 180 countries.

"The well-being and freedom that technological advances offer us come with a huge consumption of resources. If we think that almost 80% of an electronic equipment can be recycled, we will see that we have at least one solution to save resources and avoid the extraction of new raw materials and minerals. The recycling of electronics is that small gesture, which, when multiplied, can have the force to positively influence these statistics", said Roxana Puia, marketing director of Environ Association, involved in the management of electrical and electronic equipment waste in Romania.

According to Environ, by 2022, the whole of humanity will have already produced 62 billion kilograms of electrical equipment waste, of which only 22.3% will have been collected and properly recycled.

As for Romania, it will live on ecological debt starting from July 20th. The country is ranked 78 in this top, after last year it was ranked 30. The most wasteful countries are Qatar (February 11th), Luxembourg (February 20th), the United Arab Emirates (March 4th), Kuwait (March 5th), Bahrain and Estonia (March 8th).

At the other end, among the most attentive to natural resources are Kyrgyzstan, which loses only one day of this year (December 30th), the Republic of Moldova (December 28th), Guinea (December 27th), Morocco and French Guinea (December 22th).

Environ Association is one of the most important organizations in the field of waste management of electrical and electronic equipment in Romania. Environ represents the obligations of about 1,150 manufacturers who put on the market imported electrical and electronic equipment or products under their own brand, namely 27% of the total companies registered with the National Agency for Environmental Protection (ANPM). In its 17 years of activity, it managed over 230,000 tons of electrical and electronic equipment waste and organized over 4,000 collection points. The organization takes responsibility for all 6 categories of electrical and electronic equipment, namely: heat transfer equipment, monitors and screens, lamps, large equipment, small equipment and IT&C equipment.