Sustainability indicators to analyze the management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment

ABSTRACT

Sustainability indicators have become a very useful tool in the evaluation and monitoring of goals to be achieved in the management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Brazil, which is mentioned in the National Solid Waste Policy (Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos – PNRS) as a minimum content that must be present in municipal plans. Thus, the objective of this research was to develop a matrix of sustainability indicators capable of evaluating the WEEE management system in Brazilian municipalities. For this, a set of 31 indicators was gathered to be validated using the Delphi Method. Two rounds of the method were needed, which were applied in 2020 to refine the indicators and gather opinions relevant to the study by experts. Each specialist received a copy of the questionnaire, in which they could evaluate the relevance of the indicator; assign a mark to each indicator measurement descriptor; and make suggestions. Of the sixty experts who were sent questionnaires, 32 and 28 participated in the first and second rounds, respectively. A matrix consisted of 21 indicators was obtained (including calculations made, descriptors of the sustainability trend and their respective scores), of which three were created, 11 were adapted from the WEEE literature, and eight were based on indicators of urban solid waste and garbage collection, separated into five dimensions of sustainability: political/institutional, knowledge/coverage, economic, social, and environmental. A proposal for calculating the matrix's sustainability index was also presented.

Keywords:
waste from electrical and electronic equipment; reverse logistics; matrix of indicators