Case Studies
The government of Federative Republic of Brazil announced the “National Solid Waste Management Policy” in 2010.
The “National Solid Waste Management Policy” calls for the establishment of “reverse logistics[1],” in which abandoned products are returned to the private sector for reuse, recycling, or appropriate treatment and disposal, from the perspective of “sharing the responsibility of all stakeholders involved in the product life cycle.
E-waste, which is post-consumer electrical and electronic equipment, is one of the target items of the reverse logistics, and substantial measures were required for the establishment of the reverse logistics, such as collaboration between public and private sectors with clarification of the division of roles.
The joint venture led by Nippon Koei was awarded a contract by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to implement the “Project for E-waste Reverse Logistics Improvement.”
Comprehensive Support for New Recycling System
In this project, the joint venture of Nippon Koei provided comprehensive support for introduction of a new recycling system in Sao Paulo City. Main activities under the project are:
- Estimation of present and future generation of E-waste and cost for introduction and operation of new recycling policy,
- Planning and implementation of the pilot project for data collection and system trial of reverse logistics of E-waste and reflecting the lessons learned from the pilot project into the policy,
- Consideration of economic incentives for consumers, retailers, transporters, and recyclers,
- Consensus building on reverse logistics system such as collection system, role-sharing, cost sharing, etc. with various stakeholders such as a municipality, retailers, transporters, and recyclers,
- Promotion of public relation activities using SNS and TV media.
Positive Impact
In the in-store collection, a total of 10 stores collected 4,050 kg of E-waste. In the trade-in collection, a total of 873 kg of E-waste was collected from 8 stores. Future E-waste recycling costs were estimated using the cost data obtained from the PP.
In addition, the project actively conducted publicity activities, including the creation of a mascot character, distribution of press releases to the media, in-store PR campaigns, and distribution of information on the project website and SNS.
[1] “Reverse logistics” means logistics to return from consumers to manufacturers. In a case of E-waste, it consists of a series of flows such as collection from consumers, transportation, storage, demolition, recycling and disposal.
