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Chapter 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0097-1.ch023
ABSTRACT
The chapter contains the concepts of Social Entrepreneurship, Planned and Perceived Obsolescence,
Corporate Social Responsibility, the legal framework for Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE)
waste, and Reverse Logistics, as theoretical support from diferent authors. Applied to Manizales,
Colombia, the study was conducted with a quantitative and qualitative approach. The information was
collected through surveys and interviews with 26 entrepreneurs and 331 households’ consumers to
know the type of appliances, how they buy, change and use them, and the chain of intermediaries. With
planned and perceived obsolescence, products lose their life in a short time, are dumped as Waste of
Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and collected by people of low educational and economic
level that survive in precarious conditions. Due to these results and conclusions, we ofer in the chapter
the opportunity to generate proposals for their inclusion and social development.
1. INTRODUCTION
In Colombia, due to the few public policies related to environmental management, and specifically the
control of manufacturing, distribution and sales of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), there have
been implementing market strategies concerning to Planned and Perceived Obsolescence
1
(Valquíria
and Bonifacio, 2013) that reduce the time of use by consumers and therefore the acceleration occurs in
its abandonment as an useful object. Having completed its life cycle, the Waste of Electrical and Elec-
The Electronic Obsolescence
as an Opportunity for
Social Entrepreneurship:
The Case of EEE in Manizales, Colombia
Diego Lopez Cardona
Universidad de Manizales, Colombia
Rocío del S. Tabares Hoyos
Universidad de Manizales, Colombia