DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION MODEL OF AN E-WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR FINANCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

摘要

The term "e-waste" stands for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and covers damaged, discarded or obsolete electricity consuming appliances; it includes a wide range of devices such as computers, consumer electronics, cell phones and appliances that are no longer used. The flow of information and data volumes that are generated and transferred worldwide have grown alongside the rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies, causing a decrease in technology costs and a reduction in the lifecycle period of products. As a result, platforms, systems and equipment with functional capacity are replaced rapidly, making the e-waste one of the largest and fastest growing waste streams in the world. In this sense, several authors have highlighted the urgent need to develop environmentally sustainable and financially viable e-waste management systems, which combine efficient recollection and reuse processes acceptable to society, with high performance and low cost recovery and recycling technologies. However, this is not an easy task and requires overcoming regulatory gaps, financial constraints, technological challenges and educational and cultural barriers, which are particularly difficult in developing countries. In economic terms, it is important for the e-waste management system to be efficient and guarantee financial sustainability over time; for this, an important role is played by variables such as the expected amounts of waste, the performance of technologies involved and the efficiency of different processes for material transformation. Although these systems still have significant challenges to financial sustainability, some economic scenarios have been identified which are financially feasible provided that the right level of commitment and participation of government, industry and individuals are in place. The work presented here seeks to contribute to the design and feasibility analysis of e-waste management systems, so as to maximize current and future waste use and recycling, taking into account the recommendations of the Basel Convention and other world leading initiatives like the EU WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC. For this, a simulation model of e-waste management systems is developed, as a tool for analyzing the technological and financial feasibility of such systems in developing countries. The model is suitable to be run in discrete event simulation software applications and is fitted and experimentally applied to the Colombian case. The usefulness of this type of simulation models has been widely recognized to help demonstrate, predict, and measure system strategies for effective, efficient and optimized performance. As a result, we obtain a simulation model and a set of runs that allow scenario analysis to support public policy-making and business strategy formulation for e-waste treatment in developing countries.