WEEE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN LOMBARDIA. PART I: MATERIAL BALANCE

Abstract

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe. The presence of hazardous substances as well as of valuable materials makes the study of the different management options of this waste particularly interesting. The scope of this work is to assess the current WEEE treatment practices in Lombardia Region (Italy) through an extensive collection of primary data related to plant technologies. The main outputs after the primary treatment and after the subsequent treatment of separated components were quantified and the material balance of the system was assessed. Results show that the treatment of WEEE categories allows the recovery of precious and base metals (lead, gold, silver, palladium, nickel, copper, aluminum, steel, cobalt), as well as products like manganese dioxide, wood, plastics, and finally of thermal and electric energy from the residual streams.
The results here presented were used, in a second step of the study, to investigate the WEEE management system in Lombardia Region by means of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (Falbo et al., 2015).