Towards an Assessment Methodology to Support Decision Making for Sustainable Electronic Waste Management Systems: Automatic Sorting Technology

Ilaria Barletta, Jon Larborn, Mahesh Mani and Björn Johannson
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Ilaria Barletta: Department of Product and Production Development, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg SE-41296, Sweden
Jon Larborn: Department of Product and Production Development, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg SE-41296, Sweden
Mahesh Mani: Dakota Consulting Inc., Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
Björn Johannson: Department of Product and Production Development, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg SE-41296, Sweden

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: There is a lack of structured methodologies to support stakeholders in accessing the sustainability aspects for e-waste management. Moreover, the increasing volume of electronic waste (e-waste) and the availability of automated e-waste treatment solutions demand frequent reconfigurations of facilities for efficient e-waste management. To fill this gap and guide such ongoing developments, this paper proposes a novel methodological framework to enable the assessing, visualizing and comparing of sustainability impacts (economic, environmental and social) resulting from changes applied to a facility for e-waste treatment. The methodology encompasses several methods, such as discrete event simulation, life cycle assessment and stakeholder mapping. A newly-developed demonstrator for sorting e-waste is presented to illustrate the application of the framework. Not only did the methodology generate useful information for decision making, but it has also helped identify requirements for further assessing the broader impacts on the social landscape in which e-waste management systems operate. These results differ from those of previous studies, which have lacked a holistic approach to addressing sustainability. Such an approach is important to truly measure the efficacy of sustainable e-waste management. Potential future applications of the framework are envisioned in production systems handling other waste streams, besides electronics.

Keywords: assessment; sustainability; e-waste; production system; sorting; key performance indicators; simulation; life cycle assessment; stakeholder mapping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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