Abstract
Brazil is the second largest producer of electronic waste in the Americas, with a production that grows each year and only 10% of it being treated in its own way. Additionally, given the typical chemical composition of this type of residue, it can be possible to recover valuable metals, such as copper, gold, silver, and platinum. Presently, Brazil does not have an industrial plant devoted to such extractive activity using electronic waste, with most of its treatment carried out abroad. The research hypothesis of this manuscript is that universities and their communities could develop sources of raw materials for such extraction processes and, therefore, deserve attention for the creation of collection points and partnerships. In this context, there is a need to understand this community behavior regarding the acquisition, storage, and disposal of electronic equipment, as well as information about topics related to electronic waste management and recycling. To implement such a study for the higher education community in Rio de Janeiro, a form was created covering several topics on the subject, which was disseminated among the teachers, students, employees, and family members of two main state universities. It was determined that the studied group has more than 16.96 million mobile phones in hibernation, in addition to other equipment, with an estimated stockpile value of USD 67.45 million for the studied group in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro. If extrapolated to all of Brazil, this could be as high as USD 797.50 million for the studied group. This information will be used in future projects to assess the economic potential of an industrial plant dedicated to metal recovery in Brazil. However, the present study also identified an important lack of knowledge regarding proper waste disposal and solid waste policies among this well-educated group. It became clear that without appropriate information regarding collection points and knowledge on how to deal with obsolete devices, the access to this source of raw material could be a hinderance to future extraction projects in the area.
Highlights
Based on the research results, it can be estimated that the number of hibernating electronic devices by students and staff from all universities, if the state trend could be extrapolated to other segments of the country, would be: 9.91 million mobile phone (MP), 7.05 million old mobile phone (OMP), 3.08 million TPC, 1.94 million desktop personal computer (DPC), 5.44 million LPC, 2.73 million video game consoles (VG), and 4.59 million MP3 players or similar (MP3P)
The present research assessed the behavior of the people within or related to the academic community in Rio de Janeiro towards electronic devices consumption, waste disposal, and knowledge of Brazilian environmental policies for solid residues; this study estimated the metallic economical value of the hibernating stockpile in the metropolitan area of this city
An important hibernating stockpile was observed that could be used as a source of raw materials for the extraction processes if concrete initiatives develop an effective recycling culture and encourage a vast number of collection points for correct disposal
Summary
In 2019, the worldwide estimated production of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for the year 2021 was 52.2 million tons [1,2,3]. By the end of that year, this estimative had already been exceeded, as approximately 53.3 million tons of electronic scrap were generated in 2019 [4]. When analyzing the chemical composition of this type of residue, some devices stand out in the concentration of metals with high aggregate value, among which are small electronic devices, such as mobile phones, computers, and tablets, among others.
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