A model for estimation of potential generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Brazil Marcelo Guimarães Araújo a,⇑ , Alessandra Magrini a , Cláudio Fernando Mahler b , Bernd Bilitewski c a Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, COPPE, Energy Planning Department, Brazil b Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, COPPE, GETRES, Brazil c Technical University of Dresden, Institute of Waste Management and Contaminated Site Treatment (IAA), Germany article info Article history: Received 12 February 2011 Accepted 18 September 2011 Available online 19 October 2011 Keywords: WEEE Waste generation Brazil abstract Sales of electrical and electronic equipment are increasing dramatically in developing countries. Usually, there are no reliable data about quantities of the waste generated. A new law for solid waste management was enacted in Brazil in 2010, and the infrastructure to treat this waste must be planned, considering the volumes of the different types of electrical and electronic equipment generated. This paper reviews the literature regarding estimation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), focusing on developing countries, particularly in Latin America. It briefly describes the current WEEE system in Brazil and presents an updated estimate of generation of WEEE. Considering the limited available data in Brazil, a model for WEEE generation estimation is proposed in which different methods are used for mature and non-mature market products. The results showed that the most important variable is the equipment lifetime, which requires a thor- ough understanding of consumer behavior to estimate. Since Brazil is a rapidly expanding market, the ‘‘boom’’ in waste generation is still to come. In the near future, better data will provide more reliable esti- mation of waste generation and a clearer interpretation of the lifetime variable throughout the years. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. 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 sev- eral 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 gov- ernment 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 domes- tic product (GDP), placing Brazil today in a standout position in the global market. For example, it is in fifth place in production of com- puters (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 dis- posal of materials can be assessed. Analysis of the life cycle of WEEE in Brazil, however, is extre- mely 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 experi- ences as references. In this paper seven types of equipment as tracers for the WEEE system in Brazil were chosen: refrigerators, freezers, washing ma- chines, televisions, audio systems, computers and cell phones. They are the most representative of the WEEE generated, consider- ing weight, sales volume, lifetime, presence and importance of haz- ardous 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, freez- ers, 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, 0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2011.09.020 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +55 21 2562 8767. E-mail address: marcel_g@uol.com.br (M.G. Araújo). Waste Management 32 (2012) 335–342 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman