P U B L I C I D A D E

ABRIR
FECHAR

P U B L I C I D A D E

ABRIR
FECHAR
Voltar

Urban Mining

The recovery of materials such as aluminum, copper, gold, silver and palladium from electronic waste is worthwhile and its volume is increasing more and more. But their collection and processing in the country are just in its childhood

Generally, the word mining is associated to the image of men and machine moving large portions of material in isolated places. But currently a very contemporary version of this quite traditional activity is being developed inside major cities: urban mining. This name is given to the extraction of precious metals that are part of smartphones, computers and TVs, among other electro-electronic devices that use a quite diversified range of materials, whose recovery and recycling is always possible.

In terms of quantity, these products are mainly composed by plastic, glass and common metals such as iron. But there are also more expensive metals such as aluminum and copper and—especially in integrated circuit boards—other valuable metals such as gold, silver and palladium.

It is possible to extract, among other products, approximately 100 to 150 grams of gold from one ton of electronic waste. And primary mining uses approximately one ton of ore to produce five grams of gold. But while the ore is concentrated in a single place in the mine, urban mining demands a widespread network of waste collection to get bulk material that can make feasible a production plant. That is why only a few companies (none in Brazil) carry out the final phase of the process, using waste material coming from the whole world.

According to estimations from the UN, 1.4 million tons of electro-electronic waste are generated each year in Brazil. There are no official data about its reuse but it is supposed that not more than two percent of these materials are recycled.

LEGISLATION

The destination of these waste materials is currently regulated by the PNRS (National Policy of Solid Waste), which compels the different industries to establish with the Federal Government commitments of environmentally appropriate destination of the waste materials generated by their activities. The agreement with the industry of electro-electronics will be signed this year and will establish that—starting from 2018—the industry will collect per year 17 percent of the total weight of products sold in the previous year.

To comply with the requirements of law, Abinee (Brazilian Association of Electric and Electronic Industry) structured last year an operation called Green Electron, that will operationalize the reverse logic—the formal designation of waste destination—of its associates. João Carlos Redondo, sustainability director of Abinee, acknowledges that “the collection of electronic waste in Brazil is evolving, but slowly”.

Even without statistic data, the director of the department of environmental quality and waste destination from the Ministry of the Environment, Zilda Veloso, says that the collection of electronic waste in Brazil is expanding. “There is more awareness of the population and more places available to discard electro-electronic equipment”, justifies him.

But Zilda Veloso remembers that most of this activity is carried out informally, since the final phase of extraction of precious metals from circuit boards is not performed in Brazil. Thus, boards are exported just after being collected and crushed. “And the main part of the economic benefit remains abroad”, says her. “Brazil needs policies of encouragement to attract recycling companies and technologies to the country.”

SCENARIO

Complex operations of electro-electronic recycling are already available abroad. Maybe the biggest of them is that developed by the American company Sims, which has a network of owned units in 20 countries of several continents.

Some of their operations are present in the Brazilian market, as also occurs with another American company, iTran, partner of Reciclo Metais, a company of São Paulo that recycled an average volume of 70 tons of electronic waste per month during the last year, going from flat iron for hair smoothing to large equipment for medical diagnosis, passing through computers, cell phones and TVs, among many other items.

Reciclo Metais—tells its CEO Marcus Oliveira—separates and sends to specialized recyclers 96 percent of the materials extracted from electro-electronics. Circuit boards are exported to countries such as Canada, China and Germany. In the outer market they reach an average value of US$ 3000 per ton (but such value may reach US$ 10 thousand, depending on the amount of precious metals).

Betting in the potential of business generation in the electro-electronic recycling market, a private investor became partner of the company, which moved from a shed of 1000 sq.mt. to another with two and a half times that area. “Electro-electronic recycling will increase in Brazil, especially due to the regulations, which are evolving continuously”, foresees Oliveira.

But there are obstacles to develop this activity. One of them is the low level of waste collection, what compels Coopermiti—cooperative from São Paulo that gathers more than 20 recyclers—to use only 30 percent of its total capacity of electronic recycling, currently of 100 tons per month. “In Brazil there is still no recycling culture and people do not know that some electro-electronics may be dangerous”, says Alex Luiz Pereira, director of Coopermiti.

In addition, the informality of this industry is intense. Many companies not qualified for this activity remove the electro-electronic waste extracting just the more valuable parts with no concern with the destination of the materials that do not interest them. “But since the last year, recycling companies must have environmental license”, says him. “And this is a progress in the route to formalization.”