SUM2020 / 5TH SYMPOSIUM ON URBAN MINING AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY / 18-20 NOVEMBER 2020 / VENICE,

IT

E-WASTE HOTSPOTS AND BEST ROUTES

ANALYSIS FOR REVERSE LOGISTICS IN THE
CITY OF SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
Jéssica Cugula1, Luca Apolonio1 , Raíssa Araujo1 , Marianna Ottoni2 and Lúcia Xavier3

1 Department of Water Resources and Environment, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da
Silveira Ramos, 149, 21941-909, Brazil
2 Energy Planning Program, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. Athos da Silveira Ramos, 149, Block
C 21941-909, Brazil
3 Center of Mineral Technology, Av. Pedro Calmon, 900, 21941-908 21941-909, Brazil

ABSTRACT: The main challenges of e-waste urban mining in Brazil are related an expressive generation
dispersed within a large territory, making the reverse logistics system complex and costly, if not
adequately managed. São Paulo, as the richest and most populous Brazilian city, can be considered an
e-waste generation hotspot, with great potential for enabling urban mining. The present study aims to
analyze optimized routes for the reverse logistics of e-waste in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, connecting
the generation poles (hotspots) with the main e-waste recycling organizations (recyclers). The
methodology was based on estimating e-waste generation hotspots considering four socioeconomic
parameters: population, demographic density, income, and Human Development Index (IDH). In the
sequence, the main e-waste recycling organizations acting in the region were identified and
georeferenced, enabling the creation of routes connecting them to the main hotspots. The choice of the
best routes was supported by general decision criteria, such as distances between these points and the
recyclers’ capacity to process the estimated amount of e-waste. There was a total of 26 hotspots, the
majority in the central and richest part of the city, along with the recyclers distribution. Because of that,
the peripheral areas had the longest routes requiring even recyclers in other cities for the collection
optimization. This study highlighted the most susceptible areas to adopt future e-waste points of collection
or consolidation and implement urban mining in the city of São Paulo, indicating suggestions for more
strategic regions for directing investment by decision-makers.

Keywords: E-waste; Routes; Reverse Logistics; Geographic Information System (GIS); Urban Mining; São Paulo.

1. INTRODUCTION

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (e-waste) are those that come from appliances that need
electric energy or accumulators for their operation, corresponding to the type of waste with the highest
current growth (Awasthi et al., 2018). The large generation of this typology of waste increases the risks
of environmental contamination and human health, caused by the toxicity of some of its components
(Kidee et al., 2013). However, the e-waste reuse through urban mining has been strategic, mainly due to
the valuable metals used in their manufacture.
Urban mining encompasses a set of operations aimed at recovering the secondary raw material
present in waste and materials stored in urban structures (Serranti et al., 2012), and, therefore, is
considered a complementary alternative to traditional mining. Thus, this approach corroborates to reduce
the environmental impacts of natural resources exploitation and the volume of waste disposed of in
landfills since it contributes to the reinsertion of these materials in the production chain, leading to the
generation of jobs and income.
The main challenges of urban mining of e-waste in Brazil are related to cargo consolidation, due to its
dispersed generation in the territory, which makes the formulation of logistical systems to return to the
production chain complex and costly, if not managed efficiently.

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SUM2020 / 5TH SYMPOSIUM ON URBAN MINING AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY / 18-20 NOVEMBER 2020 / VENICE,
IT

The reverse logistics, in this context, aims to collect and return waste to the business sector (Brazil,
2010), mainly for metal and other materials’ recovery, one of the phases of urban mining. In Brazil, the
implementation of e-waste reverse logistics systems is mandatory by law, with the goals published until
2025 in Decree no. 10,240, in February 2020 (Brazil, 2020).
The city of São Paulo is the richest and most populous in Brazil (IBGE, 2019). Hence, it has a great
potential for being an e-waste generation hotspot, and, therefore, enabling urban mining, not only in the
city but throughout São Paulo state, which concentrates the largest number of organizations in the e-
waste segment of Brazil. Thus, the present study aims to analyze optimized routes for the e-waste reverse
logistics in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, connecting the generation poles (hotspots) with the main e-waste
recycling organizations (recyclers), in order to facilitate collecting and disposing of such waste and making
urban mining viable by consolidating cargo and reducing costs with reverse logistics.

2. METHODOLOGY

The methodological procedure of this study was based on three main stages. The first one referred to
the definition of e-waste generation hotspots among the districts of the city of São Paulo. Since population
and socio-economic criteria can influence the generation of e-waste in a region (Ottoni et al., 2020), 4
parameters were considered, namely: population (inhabitant) (P), demographic density (inhabitant/Km²)
(D), population's monthly income (R$) (I) and the Human Development Index (HDI) (H). Data were
obtained from the last demographic census in Brazil (IBGE, 2010; 2019). The values of each parameter
were divided by the highest value of each category so that they are worked in the range of 0 to 1, number
one being the highest value. The relationship between the parameters was calculated by equation (1) for
the e-waste generation potential (EWGP), determined with the most expressive weights for income and
HDI, that express more directed social and economic aspects.

EWGP = 0.2P*0.2D*0.3I*0.3H (1)

The e-waste generation hotspots were defined as those in which the EWGP was greater than 0.5, with
the restriction of necessarily not having two or more parameters included in the 25% of the lowest value
and not being of the districts that presented the highest value in the sample for one of the parameters.
Subsequently, the centroid of each district in the city of São Paulo was considered as a representative
point of the area, calculated by ArcGIS software tools.
In the second phase, the recycling organizations (or recyclers, considered in this study as
organizations, cooperatives of waste pickers and industries that perform any of the e-waste downstream
activities, from collection to treatment itself), operating in the e-waste segment in the city of São Paulo
and surroundings were identified through web search engines and contact with environmental agencies
and research institutions, being subsequently georeferenced in the Google Earth software, and worked
on ArcGIS software. The recyclers size data was obtained from Federal Revenue of Brazil and individual
recyclers’ websites.
The third stage was related to obtaining and evaluating routes optimized according to decision criteria,
their methodologies and best choice economic scenarios, defined in Table 1. For that, within a radius of
5 km from the hotspot, all the recyclers had the same weight considering the distance criteria, being,
hence, the capacity and activities profile of the recycler the selection criteria. If any hotspots did not
presented any recycler in a 5 km radius, a 10 km one would be used, although with the selection process
still the same. Also, the quantity of hotspots destined to a recycler was arbitrarily limited considering the
size: Large recyclers could supply 3 hotspots, Medium, 2, and Small, 1.
Finally, the Google Maps software was used for supporting the analysis since this tool considers real
traffic aspects and distances from hotspots to the recyclers, calculated by the average round trip.

Table 1. Decision criteria for selecting optimized routes for e-waste Reverse Logistics in the city of São Paulo
Decision Criteria Method Best choices

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SUM2020 / 5TH SYMPOSIUM ON URBAN MINING AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY / 18-20 NOVEMBER 2020 / VENICE,
IT

Distance (Hotspot - Recycling

Measured by ArcGIS tools Shorter distances
organization)
Organizations were classified as Large,
Recycling organization size Large organizations
Medium or Small
The recyclers were separated by the Greater number of activities, i.e.
Activities done by the recyclers
activities performed greater degree of complexity

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This study identified a total of 26 hotspots, indicating main priority areas for reverse logistics, and 29
options for the recyclers in this system, but only 13 of them were considered after the best routes
selection, as presented in Figure 1. The hotspots are represented by the circles, in which the color
matches the one from the recycler selected, in inverted triangle, as the best destination for the e-waste
generated there. Also, Figure 1 indicates the hotspots colors and the districts they represent, such as the
distance between those hotspots and the recycler from the same color.
.

Figure 1. E-waste generation hotspots, recyclers and routes identification

As the richest part of the city, the central region concentrates the hotspots and the recyclers, which is
logical given that their market tends to be focused there. Because of that, it is also where the districts with
smaller distance to the recyclers, such as República and Itaim Bibi, are located. There are more recyclers
concentrated in this area, but they were not used due to the selection of the optimized one for each spot,
that is, the one that could balance distance and processing size. That way, even if the recyclers selected
are not able to supply all the area needs, there are other options located very close to the generation
points, besides the other smaller recyclers in the region, guaranteeing a great potential for a very self
sustainable reverse system with maintenance of patterns in collection periods.
In the periphery areas, regions distant from the center, are located the districts with higher population.
However, they are not very close to recyclers. Grajaú, for example, is located in dark green point in the
extreme south of Figure 1, and it is also the most populated district in the city, but the closest recycler to

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SUM2020 / 5TH SYMPOSIUM ON URBAN MINING AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY / 18-20 NOVEMBER 2020 / VENICE,
IT

the hotspot location is 25 km away, that is not even located within the city limits. Also, following this pattern
is Jardim São Luís, with a distance of 15.5 km from the closest recycler.
The longer distances to a recycler in peripheral regions configure a logistical problem, due to the costs
of transportation. In these cases, alternatives have to be listed, such as places where the e-waste could
be safely stored and the transportation periods spaced out, requiring a research in a most precise scale,
with other detailed parameters.

4. CONCLUSIONS
The present study not only emphasized the potential of e-waste generation in the city of São Paulo as
an urban mine but also presented a proposal for identifying e-waste generation hotspots considering
socioeconomic variables, a differential in relation to other methodologies for this purpose. However, more
realistic determination of e-waste generation becomes complex in a scenario of a lack of reliable
databases, as is the case in Brazil. Furthermore, this article highlighted the areas most likely to present
future points of collection or consolidation of e-waste in the city of São Paulo, indicating suggestions for
more strategic areas for directing investment by decision-makers.
This paper sought to simplify the São Paulo's reverse logistics system, not considering the
interrelationships of materials that occur between organizations. The sorting and disassembly phases
performed by smaller recyclers and waste pickers' cooperatives, to be consequently sent to larger ones,
was not considered. Besides, in a scenario in which e-waste generation was strictly predictable, it would
be possible to improve the analysis on a more precise amount of recyclers needed to supply each district,
also solving the social scenario problem for considering more recyclers in the system.
The routes suggested in this study can be contrasted with the possible current routes in the city for the
reverse logistics of e-waste, pointing to improvements in the system. Future studies with the application
of this methodology in other cities in Brazil without reverse logistics systems are suggested. A
complimentary analysis aiming the valorisation of the smaller recyclers is also encouraged, which requires
a scenario analysis and comparison between the social and the economic best option.

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