cost-benefit analysis of weee recycling in germany · (3) cost-benefit analysis of weee recycling...
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Cost-benefit analysis of WEEE Recycling in Germany – Case study of mobile phones and smartphones
TU Bergakademie Freiberg | Umwelt- und Ressourcenmanagement | Schlossplatz 1 | Telefonnummer: 03731 / 39-2948 | [email protected] |
October 2015
MBA Nicoleta Gurita
Content
(1) Precious and critical metal stocks and
value of critical and precious metals in
selected electronic equipment sold in
Germany
(2) Value of metal stocks not put to any
use as a result of inefficiencies in the
WEEE management system
(3) Cost-benefit analysis of WEEE recycling
(4) Major issues and challenges of
exploiting these stocks
2
WEEE = Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
E-waste is a term used to cover all items of
electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and its
parts that have been discarded by its owner as
waste without the intent of re-use. (Step Initiative 2014)
Quantity WEEE generated in year 2014 worldwide
3 Baldé, C.P., Wang, F., Kuehr, R., Huisman, J. (2015), The global e-waste monitor – 2014, United Nations University, IAS – SCYCLE, Bonn, Germany.
The European countries with the
highest e-waste generation:
• Germany (1.8 Mt),
• the United Kingdom (1.5Mt),
• France (1.4 Mt)
• Russia (1.2 Mt).
Electronics may contain up to 60 elements
– a complex mix of valuables & hazards
4
C.Hagelüken, M. Buchert, 2008
• Demand (and prices) of special & precious
metals have increased significantly (specific
metal properties are needed for more
functionality)
• Their primary production requires significant
amounts of energy and resources
• „Concentration“ in specific components like
circuit boards
• New material combinations compared to their
natural occurrence & dissipation in final product
(e.g. computers, mobile phones, cars, etc.)
make recycling challenging
Materials in a mobile phone
(UNEP, 2009).
5
EU Critical Metals
Source: European Commission, 2014
Critical metals: Cobalt, Gallium, Indium, Chromium,
Magnesium, Antimony, Beryllium
Precious metals: Gold, Silver, Palladium
Rear Earth: Praseodymium and Neodymium.
Booming product sales & increasing
functionality boosts demand for (technology) metals
6
Accumulated global mobile phone
sales until 2011 > 10 billion units
containing in total:
2500 t Ag, 240 t Au,
90 t Pd, 38,000 t Co,
90,000 t Cu, …
C.Hagelüken, EIT-KIC seminar, Leuven, 14.9.2012
Germany World
Accumulated sales > 249 million units
0,00
5.000.000,00
10.000.000,00
15.000.000,00
20.000.000,00
25.000.000,00
30.000.000,00
Mobile phones Smartphones
0,00
5.000.000,00
10.000.000,00
15.000.000,00
20.000.000,00
25.000.000,00
30.000.000,00
Mobile phones Smartphones
Source: Self prepared
Metals stock in mobile phones and smartphones in Germany, 2004 -2014
7
• Primary mining: 5g Gold/tonne ore
• 5g Gold in just 125 mobile phones
• or 167 smartphones
Traditional mass focused recycling does not fit
Germany – Metal Stock
Mobile phones
159,751,000 units
(2004-2014)
Smartphones
90,078,000 units
(2009-2014)
Source: self-prepared
> 5600 tonnes
Collection rate = 5%
Reuse Rate = 5%
UNEP Recycling Rates
8
Precious and critical metals content in units sold
5.6 thousand tonnes
Precious and critical metals content in units available for recycling
2.1 thousand tonnes
Recycledprecious and critical metals content
931 tonnes
100%
37,5 %
0,02 %
Value of metals stock not put to any use
9
> € 488 million worth of materials is not being used > € 558 million material value
Source: self-prepared
0
50.000.000
100.000.000
150.000.000
200.000.000
250.000.000
300.000.000
350.000.000
400.000.000
450.000.000
438.718.971
134.744.034
128.006.832
63.425.053
Monetary value of sales (€) Mobile phones
Monetary value of collected (€) Mobile phones
Monetary value of units available for recycling (€) Mobile phones
Monetary value of recycled material (€) Mobile phones
0
20.000.000
40.000.000
60.000.000
80.000.000
100.000.000
120.000.000
119.044.042
14.842.132 14.100.025 7.004.957
Monetary value of sales (€) Smartphones
Monetary value of collected (€) Smartphones
Monetary value of units available for recycling (€) Smartphones
Monetary value of recycled material (€) Smartphones
Sales
Collected Available
for
recycling Recycled
Sales
Collected
Available
for
recycling Recycled
10
Costs of mobile phones and smartphones recycling
Source: Self-prepared based on Das Elektrogesetz (2015), HP (2006), Walther et al. (2010), Walther & Spengler (2005).
Activity
Guarantee Collection Transportation Pre-processing Treatment
Costs
Financial Guarantee (in EUR)
= Registration amount (in tons)
x Expected return rate (as a
percentage, as specified by
EAR) x Estimated disposal
costs (in EUR / tonne, as
specified by EAR)
0,01 €/unit 13 €/t 85 €/t 135 €/t
Cost benefit analysis
11
46,05%
0,02% 3,10%
20,26%
30,57%
Guarantee Collection Transportation
Pre-processing Treatment
0,00
50.000,00
100.000,00
150.000,00
200.000,00
250.000,00
300.000,00
350.000,00
400.000,00
450.000,00
500.000,00
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Guarantee (€/t) Collection (€/t) Transportation (€/t) Pre-processing (€/t) Treatment (€/t)
0
2.000.000
4.000.000
6.000.000
8.000.000
10.000.000
12.000.000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Total costs of recycling Revenues from recycliung
12
Increasing standards of
living
GHG emissions
CFCs
Heavy metals
Certain Flame
retardans
Trapped resources
WEEE Management
Collection
Treatment
Recycling
Consumer take-back
Large informal market
• Climate Change
• Destruction of the ozone layer
• Leakage from landfills into water
and soil
• Possible formation of new
hazardous substances during
incineration
Increasing urban
population
Technology development
Increased consumption
of EEE
Generation of WEEE
WEEE Management
EU WEEE
Directive Directive 2012/19/EU
EPR Extended Producer
Responsibility -> Mass based recovery
rates
Source: self-prepared
Large Informal Market
13
Today more than 50% of the WEEE generated in Europe follows
unofficial collection routes, sometimes leading to export and improper
treatment
Transposition of the WEEE Directive into German Legislation
– the ElektroG (Aug. 2005) = Act governing the sale, return and environmentally
sound disposal of electrical and electronic equipment
14
Further important players are the
retailers and the consumers, even
though the (ElektroG) does not assign
them specific responsibilities.
PuWaMA – public waste management
authorities
EAR – clearing house
Producer
Source: Otmar Deubzer, 2011
Disincentives for Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR)
1. Producers pay at the moment according to
their pre-calculated market shares and not
for their own products
“In practice each producer shares the
average cost of collectively recycling
mixed categories of types of waste
products” (Mayers et al., 2013).
3. For IPR, producers must organize their own
collection and treatment systems outside of the
centralized system, which would be too costly.
15
Lack of Incentives for Eco-Design
1. Initial assumption -> IPR will incentivize producers to pay more
attention to eco-design
2. Germany -> competition -> lower treatment costs for producers ->
little incentive to focus or even consider the concept of ecodesign
16
Country Laptop Desktop Digital Camera
Germany 0.07 € 0.38 € 0.01 €
The
Netherlands
1.08 € 2.70 € 0.07 €
Cost in Euros of collecting and recycling of specific IT&TE products per unit in 2006 (Okopol et
al. 2007:237)
5. Recycling Step-backs
17
Vera Susanne Rotter, 2011
WEEE -> potential source of
secondary raw materials
Closing the loop
18
End users
Producers
Service
providers
Take back systems
Storage and sorting
facilities
Reuse
Spare parts
Recycling
facility
Reduce metal losses and boost
recycling along all steps of the lifecycle
• Securing access to scarce resources
• Reducing impact on energy/climate,
biosphere & water resources
• Inducing innovation & creating jobs
Success factors are product design & technical-
organisational set-up of the recycling chain
• Better collection
• Tracing & tracking of material flows
• Prevention of dubious exports
• Creating transparency
• Economic incentives
Source: self-prepared
Investigation of incentive-based approaches to
sustainable and resource-efficient delivery of electronic
products -> business models to close the loop
19
Effective recycling can play a key role to:
• Conserve metal resources & enable a
regionally more balanced access (supply
security)
• Mitigate metal price increase/volatility
• Contribute significantly to a reduction of
energy use and emissions
• Stimulate fair international cooperation
along the value added chains
Next Step
Source: self-prepared
20
TU Bergakademie Freiberg | Lessingstrasse 45 | Telefonnummer: 03731 / 39-2948 | www.tu-freiberg.de | Nicoleta Gurita | April 2014
MBA Nicoleta Gurita
TU Bergakademie Freiberg
Umwelt- und Ressourcenmanagement
Tel. +49-3731/39-2948
Thank you for your attention!