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116 Substance flow analysis of the recycling of small WEEE 7.1.4. Send less WEEE into uncontrolled channels The processes to recover the precious metals used by the informal sector, especially in developing countries (see chapter 4.1.4.2), achieve lower recovery rates for precious metals and have much higher impacts on the environment than the state-of-the-art processes applied in the industrial countries. To limit the losses of precious metals, fewer waste appliances should be sent to treatment processes that are not subject to adequate regulations. Leonhardt (2007) and GAO (2008) identified the lack of transparency in the WEEE management system and the insufficient enforcement of the legislation as elements making illegal practices possible. Also the complex definition of the responsibilities in Germany (Leonhardt 2007) and the narrow scope of the US hazardous waste regulations, which consider only CRTs as hazardous waste (GAO 2008), but not many types of WEEE such as computers, printers, and cell phones, facilitate the illegal export of WEEE to developing countries. More transparency along the treatment chain would enable a better tracking of the flows of WEEE and therefore open new possibilities to control them. This would help the enforcement of the legislation inside the borders of the countries and relative to the exports of hazardous waste. The traceability of the material flows would be higher if specific codes were defined to classify WEEE. 7-digit international standard codes are usually used to describe the contents of containers shipped over sea, but no such code exists for WEEE (GAO 2008). In the European Union, unified waste codes are listed in the Annex of the European Commission Decision 2000/532/EC. Twelve of these waste codes relate to WEEE. According to Bolland (2009), these waste codes are not adequate to describe WEEE and track the flows. The definition of internationally unified waste codes to classify WEEE (and to distinguish it from second-hand EEE, see chapter 2.4.3) could facilitate “basic statistical tracking” of exports of WEEE (GOA 2009; Sander & Schilling 2009). A better transparency of the flows in the formal sector would support the identification of the system leakages by means of which the flows of WEEE leave the formal sector for the informal sector. For example, if the total quantity of collected WEEE is significantly higher than the quantity of WEEE treated by the formal sector, this indicates that some WEEE is leaving the formal sector during the transfer of the collected WEEE to the treatment facilities. Studies like the research of Tesar & Öhlinger (2009) in Austria are useful to get an overview of the material flows entering and leaving treatment facilities. So far, such detailed studies have not been conducted in Germany or the USA.
7. Recommendations 117 In many cases, WEEE is dismantled manually in the informal sector, which achieves high recovery rates for precious metals, and employs many people who need an employment. These accomplishments as well as the high reuse rates should not hide the negative effects of the informal activities related to the recovery of metals on the environment, as presented in chapter 2.4.3. As emphasized by Manomaivibool (2009), strategies to solve the problems cannot be developed “without a solid understanding of the context” and an improvement of “our knowledge on physical and economic flows in the target market”. Instead of making policies to suppress the informal sector, it could be more effective to integrate it into the process chain and help it to reduce the environmental impacts to an acceptable level. The advantages of combining the potentials of the manual dismantling and of reuse in developing countries with the technologies used in Europe and North America to recover the (precious) metals are mentioned by the description of the project “Best of two worlds” of the StEP initiative (StEP 2009) and by the research of Kahhat & Williams (2009). However, since the informal sector is not yet ready to treat WEEE in an environmentally sound manner and, anyway, since it has to deal with the increasing generation of domestic WEEE in developing countries, the export of WEEE should be effectively prevented, in accordance with the legislation. 7.2. Other strategies to limit the discard of precious metals Because solutions of problems within a system can also be found outside this system, two further strategies are recommended to improve the cycles of precious metals associated with WEEE. They concern the design of EEE for reuse and recycling and the limitation of the generation of WEEE. 7.2.1. Design EEE for reuse and treatment The design of the product essentially determines the materials used in the product, the material combinations and the type of connections (screws, glue etc.). For this reason, the design of electrical and electronic equipment considerably influences the efficiency of the end-of-life process (pre-processing and recovery process). Design-for-Recycling aims at increasing both the quality of the recyclates and the recovery rates (Reuter and Van Schaik 2008). Various research groups developed concepts related to design for end-of-life, like Dietrich et al. (2000), Krause et al. (2006), Huisman (2003), Mathieux (2008), Meskers (2008), Reuter et al. (2005), Rifer et al. (2009), Stevels (2007) and Unger et al. (2008), as well as the project ‘DfR case studies library’ (StEP 2009).
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