IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i14p7939-d595315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Cycle Assessment and Material Flow Analysis: Two Under-Utilized Tools for Informing E-Waste Management

Author

Listed:
  • Sohani Vihanga Withanage

    (School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED), University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada)

  • Komal Habib

    (School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED), University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave. W, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada)

Abstract

The unprecedented technological development and economic growth over the past two decades has resulted in streams of rapidly growing electronic waste (e-waste) around the world. As the potential source of secondary raw materials including precious and critical materials, e-waste has recently gained significant attention across the board, ranging from governments and industry, to academia and civil society organizations. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the last decade of e-waste literature followed by an in-depth analysis of the application of material flow analysis (MFA) and life cycle assessment (LCA), i.e., two less commonly used strategic tools to guide the relevant stakeholders in efficient management of e-waste. Through a keyword search on two main online search databases, Scopus and Web of Science, 1835 peer-reviewed publications were selected and subjected to a bibliographic network analysis to identify and visualize major research themes across the selected literature. The selected 1835 studies were classified into ten different categories based on research area, such as environmental and human health impacts, recycling and recovery technologies, associated social aspects, etc. With this selected literature in mind, the review process revealed the two least explored research areas over the past decade: MFA and LCA with 33 and 31 studies, respectively. A further in-depth analysis was conducted for these two areas regarding their application to various systems with numerous scopes and different stages of e-waste life cycle. The study provides a detailed discussion regarding their applicability, and highlights challenges and opportunities for further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Sohani Vihanga Withanage & Komal Habib, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment and Material Flow Analysis: Two Under-Utilized Tools for Informing E-Waste Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7939-:d:595315
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7939/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/7939/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cucchiella, Federica & D’Adamo, Idiano & Lenny Koh, S.C. & Rosa, Paolo, 2015. "Recycling of WEEEs: An economic assessment of present and future e-waste streams," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 263-272.
    2. Fatima Khitous & Fernanda Strozzi & Andrea Urbinati & Fernando Alberti, 2020. "A Systematic Literature Network Analysis of Existing Themes and Emerging Research Trends in Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Carl W. Lam & Seong‐Rin Lim & Julie M. Schoenung, 2013. "Linking Material Flow Analysis with Environmental Impact Potential," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 17(2), pages 299-309, April.
    4. Nees Jan Eck & Ludo Waltman, 2010. "Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 523-538, August.
    5. Anna, Petrenko, 2016. "Мaркування готової продукції як складова частина інформаційного забезпечення маркетингової діяльності підприємств овочепродуктового підкомплексу," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 2(1), March.
    6. Ilaria Barletta & Jon Larborn & Mahesh Mani & Björn Johannson, 2016. "Towards an Assessment Methodology to Support Decision Making for Sustainable Electronic Waste Management Systems: Automatic Sorting Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-20, January.
    7. Daniela Cordova-Pizarro & Ismael Aguilar-Barajas & David Romero & Ciro A. Rodriguez, 2019. "Circular Economy in the Electronic Products Sector: Material Flow Analysis and Economic Impact of Cellphone E-Waste in Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bablu K. Ghosh & Saad Mekhilef & Shameem Ahmad & Swapan K. Ghosh, 2022. "A Review on Global Emissions by E-Products Based Waste: Technical Management for Reduced Effects and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Nadja von Gries & Stefan Bringezu, 2022. "Using New Spare Parts for Repair of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment? The Material Footprint of Individual Components," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. Shahjadi Hisan Farjana & Tatenda Miriam Mungombe & Hasith Madhumahda Kahanda Gamage & Anmol Sarfraj Rajwani & Olubukola Tokede & Mahmud Ashraf, 2023. "Circulating the E-Waste Recovery from the Construction and Demolition Industries: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Gimhan Jayasiri & Sunil Herat & Prasad Kaparaju, 2023. "Management of Small WEEE: Future Directions for Australia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Dhiya Durani Sofian Azizi & Marlia M. Hanafiah & Kok Sin Woon, 2023. "Material Flow Analysis in WEEE Management for Circular Economy: A Content Review on Applications, Limitations, and Future Outlook," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geraldo Cardoso de Oliveira Neto & Auro de Jesus Cardoso Correia & Henrricco Nieves Pujol Tucci & Rosângela Andrade Pita Brancalhão Melatto & Marlene Amorim, 2023. "Reverse Chain for Electronic Waste to Promote Circular Economy in Brazil: A Survey on Electronics Manufacturers and Importers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-27, February.
    2. Dhiya Durani Sofian Azizi & Marlia M. Hanafiah & Kok Sin Woon, 2023. "Material Flow Analysis in WEEE Management for Circular Economy: A Content Review on Applications, Limitations, and Future Outlook," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    3. Daniel Baratieri Valente & Ricardo César da Silva Guabiroba & Marco Antonio Conejero & Marcelino Aurélio Vieira Silva & Aldara da Silva César, 2021. "Economic analysis of waste electrical and electronic equipment management: a study involving recycling cooperatives in Brazil," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(12), pages 17628-17649, December.
    4. Daniela Cordova-Pizarro & Ismael Aguilar-Barajas & David Romero & Ciro A. Rodriguez, 2019. "Circular Economy in the Electronic Products Sector: Material Flow Analysis and Economic Impact of Cellphone E-Waste in Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-18, March.
    5. Miha Dominko & Kaja Primc & Renata Slabe-Erker & Barbara Kalar, 2023. "A bibliometric analysis of circular economy in the fields of business and economics: towards more action-oriented research," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 5797-5830, July.
    6. Hilal Shams & Altaf Hossain Molla & Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman & Hawa Hishamuddin & Zambri Harun & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, 2023. "Exploring Industry-Specific Research Themes on E-Waste: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-22, August.
    7. Idiano D’Adamo & Paolo Rosa & Sergio Terzi, 2016. "Challenges in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management: A Profitability Assessment in Three European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-19, July.
    8. Camelia Delcea & Liliana Crăciun & Corina Ioanăș & Gabriella Ferruzzi & Liviu-Adrian Cotfas, 2020. "Determinants of Individuals’ E-Waste Recycling Decision: A Case Study from Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-28, April.
    9. Camilo Llerena-Riascos & Sebastián Jaén & Jairo Rafael Montoya-Torres & Juan G. Villegas, 2021. "An Optimization-Based System Dynamics Simulation for Sustainable Policy Design in WEEE Management Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-23, October.
    10. Jacob Wood & Gohar Feroz Khan, 2015. "International trade negotiation analysis: network and semantic knowledge infrastructure," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(1), pages 537-556, October.
    11. Vivian Welch & Christine M. Mathew & Panteha Babelmorad & Yanfei Li & Elizabeth T. Ghogomu & Johan Borg & Monserrat Conde & Elizabeth Kristjansson & Anne Lyddiatt & Sue Marcus & Jason W. Nickerson & K, 2021. "Health, social care and technological interventions to improve functional ability of older adults living at home: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), September.
    12. Persson, Petra & Qiu, Xinyao & Rossin-Slater, Maya, 2021. "Family Spillover Effects of Marginal Diagnoses: The Case of ADHD," IZA Discussion Papers 14020, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Yingjin Song & Ruiyi Li & Guanyi Chen & Beibei Yan & Lei Zhong & Yuxin Wang & Yihang Li & Jinlei Li & Yingxiu Zhang, 2021. "Bibliometric Analysis of Current Status on Bioremediation of Petroleum Contaminated Soils during 2000–2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-20, August.
    14. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 176, pages 53-78.
    15. Ran Abramitzky & Roy Mill & Santiago Pérez, 2020. "Linking individuals across historical sources: A fully automated approach," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 94-111, April.
    16. Lichi Zhang & Yanyan Jiang & Junmin Wu, 2022. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of Government and Residents’ Participation in Waste Separation Based on Cumulative Prospect Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Lutz Bornmann & Robin Haunschild & Sven E. Hug, 2018. "Visualizing the context of citations referencing papers published by Eugene Garfield: a new type of keyword co-occurrence analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 427-437, February.
    18. Niccolò Comerio & Fernanda Strozzi, 2019. "Tourism and its economic impact: A literature review using bibliometric tools," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(1), pages 109-131, February.
    19. Werner Eichhorst & Ulf Rinne, 2017. "Digital Challenges for the Welfare State," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 18(04), pages 03-08, December.
    20. Sant'Anna, Ana Claudia & Bergtold, Jason & Shanoyan, Aleksan & Caldas, Marcellus & Granco, Gabriel, 2021. "Deal or No Deal? Analysis of Bioenergy Feedstock Contract Choice with Multiple Opt-out Options and Contract Attribute Substitutability," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315289, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7939-:d:595315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.