Tereza Cristina Carvalho, University of São Paulo

1. June 2019
CEDIR
Center for Disposal and Reuse of
Informatics Residuals
Tereza Cristina Carvalho
terezacarvalho@usp.br

2. E-waste
• It consists of discarded electro-electronic
equipment.
• It contains toxic and harmful substances, often
buried in landfills.
• IDC estimates that 1.4 million WEEE annually are
discarded in Brazil, with 10% being in the ICT area.
• Part of the world garbage is exported to developing
countries, where people work under inadequate
and unregulated conditions.

3. WEEE Classifications
• Brown Line - Tv / monitor TV, plasma / LCD TV /
monitor, DVD / VHS, audio products;
• Green Line - desktops, notebooks, printers, cell
phones;
• White Line - refrigerators, refrigerators and
freezers, stoves, washer, air-conditioning;
• Blue Line - blenders, blenders, electric irons and
drills.
The productive chain of WEEE is composed by:

4. E-waste Risks
• Hazardous elements
• Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, copper, beryllium,
barium, chromium, nickel, zinc, silver and gold.
• Many of these elements are printed circuit boards
and electrical parts such as computer chips,
monitors and wiring.
• These elements pose risks to human health.

5. USP ACTIONS

6. GREEN SEAL
• Green Seal awarded to Green Systems
• Inexistence of Lead.
• Energy Saving.
• All sustainable components, including
packaging.
• Alignment with ISO 14.001 and ISO
9.001 standards.
• Adherence to ROHS (Restriction of
Certain Hazardous Substances).
• Adherence to EPEAT (Electronic
Product Environmental Assessment
Tool)

7. CEDIR

8. CEDIR
USP Community &
Society
E-waste Reception
Delivery to
Social
Projects
Screening
Yes
Can be reused?
No
Finished
the life-cycle
Yes No
Social
Projects
Collection & Screening
Dismantling
Components
Separation
Compacting
& Packing
Weighting
Send to Partners
Decharacterization
Weighing the
whole material
Raw Material
to Industry
Recyclers
Categorization
Recycling

9. Wasterpickers Training

10. Wastepickers Training
Economics
Higher income to
waste-pickers.
Recycling
Entrepreneurship
Incubator
Social
Social Inclusionof
Waste-pickers
Creation of
manpower to
recycling industry
Environmental
Correct e-waste
treatment.
Reduction of
landfill use.

12. Wastepickers Training
RESULTS
• Revenue generated from the e-waste treatment: R$ 173.236,11
• 900% increase in the value of electronic waste sold by
cooperatives
• 270 trained wastepickers, 80 cooperatives (2,700 watepickers
benefited)
• 8 cooperatives structured as recycling points for electronics
• 20 collection campaigns (14.5 tons collected)
• 7 replications of methodology at universities in Brazil (ES, MG,
PE, RS, SC, SE)

13. Wastepickers Training
RESULTS
Before After

14. Awards
April 2009
Mário Covas Award 2008 - Honorable Mention -
Category: Innovation - Green Seal and CEDIR
Projects
April 2010
Mário Covas Award 2009 - Category: Innovation -
CEDIR Project
Dec 2010
InfoExame Award - Category: Green Initiative -
CEDIR Project
April 2012
Mário Covas Award 2011 - Category: Innovation -
Eco-Eletro Project
June 2013
Von Martius Award - Category: Sustainability and
Technology

15. Final considerations
• Waste has increasingly been considered as a
value.
• Growth of the formal and informal waste
industry.
• Importance of wastepicker inclusion in the e-
waste reverse chain.
• Circular Economy
• Waste can be ...
• Reused, remanufactured or recycled.

16. Remanufacturing
Reuse
Recycling
> Return on
Investment
Final considerations