Modelling e-Waste Management Towards the Circular Economy Concept: A South America Case Study

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE or e-waste) is the fastest growing waste category in the world. The European Community directives on e-waste management (RoHS and WEEE) represent the pioneer effort in mitigating environmental impacts resulting from inadequate e-waste disposal in the world. In the last two decades, many improvements were made in regulation, management alternatives, research development and social engagement to empower the e-waste management. The decision-making process is basically settled on e-waste data about generation, collection and recycling. However, this dataset is not available in most of the developing countries, which compromises the forecasting and environmental management of technological waste. Thus, we propose an alternative Environmental Information System (EIS) applied to South American countries, based in the Circular Economy concept. This proposal aims to overcome the lack and the inaccuracy of data through a system that evaluates different e-waste scenarios by comparing and weighing ranges of data categories.