Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Resources, Conservation & Recycling journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec Full length article Relation of Brazilian institutional users and technical assistances with electronics and their waste: What has changed? J.M.B.M. Moura a, ⁎ , I. Gohr Pinheiro a , D. Lischeski a , J.A.B. Valle b a Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Ambiental, Fundação Universidade Regional de Blumenau, Rua São Paulo, 3250 – Itoupava Seca, Campus II, Bloco Q – Sala 005, 89.030-000, Blumenau, SC, Brasil b Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, UFSC, Rua Pomerode, 710, Bairro Salto do Norte, 89065 300, Blumenau, SC, Brasil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Environmental perception Environmental behavior Reverse logistics Electronic equipment WEEE E-waste ABSTRACT Little is known about the perceptions and practices of institutional users (IUs) and technical assistances (TAs) of electronic equipment, which participate in the WEEE stream as much as the individuals. That is why this study aims to analyze the relationships between these two sectors, the electronic equipment (EEs) and their waste, in Blumenau, Brazil in the years of 2010 and 2015. The seven most frequently used pieces of equipment were selected as follows: the central processing unit, computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, cellular phone, and landline telephone. Questionnaires were used to register the perceptions of IUs and TAs on the useful life, reason to disposal of the EEs, and on their knowledge about the waste and related legislation. The results showed a downward trend for the useful life perception of the equipment. In both years, the most cited reason for the exchange/disposal was related to end-of-use of EEs and one of the highlighted aspects was the difficulty in elimination. For this reason, some IUs and TAs chose to stock their waste in the workplace or dispose them in the municipal solid waste collection. Moreover, the study identifies informal recycling companies of electronic waste (e-waste) as a market that has increased in Brazil. It was also observed that over time there has not been a major change in knowledge about laws of e-waste; therefore it is necessary to consolidate the country’s e-waste management with the implementation of a reverse logistics which includes electronic institutional users and technical assistances. 1. Introduction It has been estimated that in Brazil the mean generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) was equal to 1.4 million tons per year (Araujo et al., 2015), with a noticeable increase in the sales of electronic products (ABINEE, 2015). It is therefore necessary to reflect on the environmental implications of this increase on con- sumption (Al Razi, 2016), which appears to be widespread throughout the world (Echegaray and Hansstein, 2017; Paiano et al., 2013). In 2012, for example, 62 million cellular phones were sold only in Brazil, with a total of 256 million active lines (IDC, 2012; ANATEL, 2012), and most devices had less than two years of use (CPQD, 2012). A survey by Brazilian Ministry of Environmental found out that in 2012, 18% of Brazilians discard their used cellular phones in the trash and 9% of the other electronic equipments classified as Green Line equipments (MMA, 2012). Green Line is one of the four classifications of electrical and elec- tronic equipment. There is only an ordination geared towards the commercial and industrial aspects of the equipment, grouping them into four types: Green Line – central processing units (CPUs), desktops, notebooks, printers, computer monitors, cellular phones, and landline telephone; Brown Line – TV tube/monitor, plasma TV/LCD, DVD/VHS, and audio products; White Line – refrigerators, freezers, stoves, washing machines, and air-conditioning; and Blue Line – mixers, blenders, fla- tirons, and drills (Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade Foreign, 2013). The federal law number 12305 (Brazil, 2010) establishing the “National Policy on Solid Waste (NPSW).” introducing the principle of “shared responsibility” involving manufactures, importer, distributors, traders, retailers, government, and final consumers in e-waste (elec- tronic waste) management. Moreover, the law is based on ‘polluter pays’ principle determining the compulsory implementation of reverse logistics that in the case of WEEE is occurring through the constitution of ‘sectoral agreements’. For the purposes of federal law 12305 a sec- toral agreement is an “act of a contractual nature entered into between the public authority and manufacturers, importers, distributors or tra- ders, in view of the implementation of shared responsibility for the product life cycle” (Brazil, 2010). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.022 Received 13 March 2017; Received in revised form 9 August 2017; Accepted 27 August 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: joaomarcosmm@hotmail.com (J.M.B.M. Moura). Resources, Conservation & Recycling 127 (2017) 68–75 0921-3449/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. MARK