Assessment of priorities in critical material recovery from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Sue M. Grimes and David Maguire

Resources Policy, 2020, vol. 68, issue C

Abstract: A major problem in developing environmental management systems for assessing recovery priorities for high added-value materials such as critical metals from wastes is that the input data required are contained in a variety of databases compiled for different purposes with different levels of content and accuracy. To deal with decision-making priorities for environmental issues where uncertainties and inconsistencies are inherent in input data sources a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach using an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine weights and fuzzy numbers to account for input data uncertainties is developed and is illustrated for determination of critical metal recovery priorities from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe. A spreadsheet programme with many user-friendly input and output features is developed to aid data-handling and the calculations required in the MCDA approach. Where data uncertainties exist, weighted input parameters for the critical metals are determined by an absolute judgement panel of key stakeholders and include data on: recovery potential, geographical supply concentration and stability, end use substitution, future metal demand and economic importance in key industrial sectors. Sensitivity analyses can be carried out on results of recovery priority outputs by simple numerical variation of input parameters and/or by the use of specialist input decision panels representing stakeholder groups with differing priorities, and the results suggest that recovery priorities in the European situation should concentrate on gallium, indium and germanium. The spreadsheet-MCDA program set up in developing the methodology for criticality has wide general application in environmental decision-making analysis particularly where uncertainties exist in the input data required.

Keywords: Critical metal recovery priorities; Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); Analytic hierarchy process (AHP); Fuzzy set analysis; Waste electrical and electronic equipment; Sensitivity analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:68:y:2020:i:c:s0301420719308116

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101658

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