A model for estimation of potential generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Brazil
Highlights
► Literature of WEEE generation in developing countries is reviewed. ► We analyse existing estimates of WEEE generation for Brazil. ► We present a model for WEEE generation estimate. ► WEEE generation of 3.77 kg/capita year for 2008 is estimated. ► Use of constant lifetime should be avoided for non-mature market products.
Introduction
The Brazilian National Waste Management Policy (Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos – PNRS) was approved in August 2010 (Brasil, 2010), based on the concepts of shared product responsibility, product life cycle and the reverse logistics for several sectors, including electrical and electronic waste. According to this law, producers and government authorities must prepare plans that provide diagnosis of the situation, scenarios, reduction, reuse and recycling goals and targets for decreasing disposal in landfills. However, this law still largely lacks the follow-on state and local legislation and enabling regulations at all levels of government to put its provisions fully into practice.
Electrical and electronic equipment is one of the most dynamics sectors of the economy, comprising 4.1% of Brazilian gross domestic product (GDP), placing Brazil today in a standout position in the global market. For example, it is in fifth place in production of computers (ABINEE, 2011, Valério, 2009).
Material flow analysis is an initial step for a complete analysis of the WEEE issue, which should include life cycle assessment (LCA). This method considers the impacts along the life cycle of WEEE, so the subsequent reuse, refurbishment, treatment and disposal of materials can be assessed.
Analysis of the life cycle of WEEE in Brazil, however, is extremely complex due to the dispersion of agents involved throughout the country and the lack of a structured policy for collection and recycling (ABETRE, 2006, Rodrigues, 2007, Fehr et al., 2010). Even the first step of characterizing the life cycle in quantitative terms is difficult and controversial. Indeed, the data available in Brazil are conflicting, which prevents their utilization for accurate LCA. In this sense, the present paper has the goal to estimate and validate the volumes of WEEE in the country, taking international experiences as references.
In this paper seven types of equipment as tracers for the WEEE system in Brazil were chosen: refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, televisions, audio systems, computers and cell phones. They are the most representative of the WEEE generated, considering weight, sales volume, lifetime, presence and importance of hazardous substances. The model presented here tries to analyze these items according to the level of market development, based on two assumptions. For mature market products, like refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, televisions and audio systems, the estimate of waste generation is done assuming an average lifetime for the appliances. For non-mature market products, like computers and cell phones, due to the technological changes affecting lifetime, the waste generation is estimated according to the difference between sales and variation of the stock in use.
The paper is organized into seven sections including this introduction. Section 2 gives a description of the electronic and electrical equipment market; Section 3 describes briefly the WEEE system in Brazil and its impacts; Section 4 presents a review of the literature on estimating WEEE generation; Section 5 presents a model for WEEE generation for the selected equipment; Section 6 shows the results; and finally, Section 7 sets out our conclusions, emphasizing the critical success factors for good WEEE management in Brazil.
Section snippets
The international context and the Brazilian market for electrical and electronic equipment
Analysis of the international market for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) shows that products like televisions, refrigerators, washing machines and sound systems have reached relatively stable output levels in developed countries, while in emerging countries the markets for these devices are still expanding, due to increasing income levels and urbanization. In developing countries, these markets can be said to be mature. This same is not true for other products, such as computers and
Waste electrical and electronic equipment and its impacts
Waste electrical and electronic equipment has become a very important waste stream due to increasing volume of sales and the hazardous substances in the respective components (Hilty, 2005). In Europe this has led to specific legislation, the WEEE Directive (EU, 2002), with the goal of diverting WEEE from landfills and increasing the recovery of materials by imposing extended producer responsibility for electrical and electronic equipment.
WEEE contains several hazardous substances, like lead,
Literature review on estimation of potential waste electrical and electronic equipment
The inherent difficulties of obtaining data on WEEE and the possible ways of estimating its generation are the subjects of various published works in the international arena. According to the European Environmental Agency (EEA, 2003), the difficulty of setting up material flow balance for electrical and electronic equipment involves the complexity of the system and the lack of reliable data. The authors note the difficulties in obtaining data for the calculations of WEEE potential in Europe,
WEEE generation in Brazil
This section analyzes the main estimates of WEEE generation in Brazil and proposes an alternative model to calculate the waste flows for devices in mature and immature markets.
Analysis of the results
The estimation of the WEEE generation for the selected products in Brazil for 2008 is presented at Table 7. The table also presents the equipment waste generation per capita for 2008.
Total WEEE generation per capita for the seven selected products is 3.77 kg/capita/year. This number is not too far from the 3.4 kg/capita/year found for Brazil by Rocha et al. (2009), who used the same products for Brazil in 2008. Nonetheless, the results are different for non-mature products, notably computer
Conclusion
A reliable estimate of generation of waste is crucial to policymakers and waste management service companies. After the enactment of the Solid Waste Law in 2010, the producers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment now face the impending responsibility for a proper treatment of WEEE, and therefore they will have to structure a system for WEEE collection and treatment. For such a system to be efficient, there will have to be reliable figures on WEEE generation to allow adequate
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge support from the Brazilian research agencies CNPq, CAPES and FAPERJ, as well as DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) and ABINEE.
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