Life cycle analysis of electronic products for a product-service system

Abstract

The market competition associated with the programmed obsolescence of electronic products, causes an increase in the amount of waste. In this context, the Product-Service Systems correspond to a sustainable business alternative, since their systemic character considers the processes from the conception of the proposal to the post-use destination. Thus arises the need to use models and techniques of environmental management that consider the entire life cycle of products, services and processes. In view of this, this work aims to propose the Life Cycle Analysis of an electronic product based on the concepts of the Product-Service System. The methodology adopted is composed of three stages: i) systematic review of the literature, ii) construction of a model that interrelates the Product-Service System and the Life Cycle Analysis and, iii) analysis of the model proposed on the product Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen of a discarded cell phone, where SIMAPRO® software was used. These steps allowed the analysis of the incineration process of 1 kg of waste from the LCD screen of cell phones, so that the results prove the impacts caused by this process: terrestrial ecotoxicity (99.8%), human toxicity (potentially carcinogenic material) (75.2%) and depletion of mineral resources (33.3%). In addition, the results highlight the materials that cause the most damage to the soil in the long term and point out Cadmium (63%) and Zinc (24%) as the toxic elements with the highest representation in the incineration of the LCD screen of cell phones. The results obtained corroborate the results of the literature, exposing the environmental and social impacts caused by these residues.