Material Flow Analysis of Electronic Wastes (e-Wastes) in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The fate of end-of-life electronics (e-wastes) is of increasing concern because of their toxicity and ever increasing volumes. Addressing these concerns requires proper management plans and strategy which in turn requires reliable estimates of e-waste generation in the present as well as future times. In this study, a material flow model for the analysis of e-waste generation from computer equipments in Nigeria has been developed. Data used to develop the model are the sales data from major distributors of electronics, usage time of computer equipments and transfer coefficients of the electronics from one stage to another. The analysis of individual flows of computer from the material flow model showed that the fate of obsolete computer equipments were storage (41%), reuse (35%) and direct disposal (24%). The projections of the flows for a period of 15 years also indicated that storage and reuse of computer equipments would be preferred over direct disposal; and computer equipments would continue to remain in either storage, re-use or gradually disposed off for about 11 years after its inflow. This delay or staggering disposal is of advantage as it would reduce the amount of e-waste disposed yearly and also afford the country some time to make plans to accommodate and manage the e-wastes generated more efficiently.

Circular Economy in the Electronic Products Sector: Material Flow Analysis and Economic Impact of Cellphone E-Waste in Mexico

“…CE models for electronic products provide mechanisms for extending the life of the equipment and then recycling and recovering each material for reuse as a secondary raw material in another system. Several tools have been developed to identify, analyze, and evaluate these processes in a system [10]. Cellphone e-waste circulates through several processes, and its materials can be used in different stages or industrial processes.…”

“…Once this information had been recorded, a mass balance analysis of each cellphone and its components was performed, based on the methodologies proposed by Yu et al [11] and Badiru et al [10]. The variation in material during the manual disassembly process (∆M) was determined by calculating the difference between the initial weight of the cellphone (Σf in ) and the sum of the weight of all components that left the process (Σf out ) (Equation (1)).…”

Penilaian aliran limbah elektronika di DKI Jakarta menggunakan Material Flow Analysis (MFA)

“…Estimasi dan perhitungan dari pembuangan limbah elektronika diperlukan dalam rangka mencari rencana dan strategi pengelolaan limbah elektronika yang tepat di Nigeria (Ibrahim et al 2013). Dalam penelitian tersebut mengembangkan metode MFA yang didasarkan pada model data penjualan dari distributor komputer.…”

“…Selain itu, proyeksi pembuangan limbah komputer juga dilakukan untuk 15 tahun mendatang guna memperoleh gambaran tentang arus aliran material limbah komputer. Dari hasil proyeksi tersebut diperoleh bahwa aktivitas penyimpanan limbah oleh masyarakat memberikan dampak bagi pemerintah Nigeria untuk membuat dan mengembangkan rencana guna mengakomodir dan mengelola limbah yang dihasilkan (Ibrahim et al 2013).…”

Perspectives of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment in Tampico, Mexico

“…Actually, these waste streams have taken relevance for its growing generation rates, among other reasons for the acquisition of technological innovations and the obsolescence in the design of EEE [1] [2]. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), estimated a generation of about 20 to 50 million tons per year (tons/year) of WEEE worldwide [3] [4], whilst in the European Economic Community (EEC) is estimated 8 million tons/year, and Latin America had a gen ratio approximately of 120,000 tons/year in 2009. For the last region, the generation is expected to be triplicate in 2015.…”