Material flow analysis on domestic high value WEEE generation and collection in Finland
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URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2014-05-19
Department
Major/Subject
Water and Environmental Engineering
Mcode
R3005
Degree programme
Yhdyskunta- ja ympäristötekniikan koulutusohjelma
Language
en
Pages
118 + 41
Series
Abstract
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) involves a large variety of end-of-life items, each one characterized by its own properties. There is a general need for accurate studies regarding the e-waste generation and collection, in order to develop sounder WEEE Management Systems. In this project, appliances characterized by high contents of precious metals were investigated. Temporal connection between products put on market and the e-waste collection in Finland is assessed, taking into account the lifespans of the items and the consumers’ behavior. Historical sales are estimated by using official statistics and sources available in literature. The e-waste generation is calculated according to the specific lifetime (modeled trough the Weibull distribution) of each product. Subsequently, official statistics, data taken from literature as well as surveys done in the Helsinki metropolitan area are used and implemented in the STAN software, in order to perform a Material Flow Analysis by means of mass balances. Finally, the results are evaluated from an economic point view. The composition of the e-waste generation is changing year by year. Sales trends of the appliances are very different, depending on consumers’ needs, item typology, competition between products, etc. Results show that small items are typically misplaced with the residual waste while appliances that may contain private information are usually stored in households, before being discarded. Moreover, the economic value of the precious metals found in the stored items is almost four times bigger than the one referred to the products properly discarded.Description
Supervisor
Vahala, RikuThesis advisor
Törn, MariaKeywords
WEEE, EEE, STAN, MFA, material composition, precious metals.