Analysis of patents for technologies related to waste electrical and electronic equipment

• Grant number: 10/02496-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: February 29, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Maria Cristina Comunian Ferraz
• Grantee: Luciara Cid Gigante
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The problem of solid waste has been touted as one of the most serious to date. The increasing scarcity of land for the establishment of new landfills, combined with the existing limitations for the recovery of non-renewable materials, low degree of implementation of new treatment alternatives and recycling, now represent a major challenge. Therefore, considering the fact that we live in a capitalist society which has its economy based heavily on high productivity, had a reduction in turnover time of consumption and, consequently, a decreased half-life of the product, for encouraging statistics increasing consumption and disposal. This research, interdisciplinary, theoretical aspects of the field allied Science, Technology and Society (STS) and Sociology of Consumption by one of the methodologies of information science. Aimed to provide an assessment of trends through patent documents, through monitoring of technological products and processes related to waste disposal technology in the patent database Esp@cenet free online, through the development of a method own analysis of the contents of patents. The specific objectives were: a) identify and categorize the types of materials classified as technological waste; b) to detect what types of materials with this classification exists in Brazil, disposal policies; c) develop methodology for gathering and analysis to evaluate trends found in patent documents through content analysis, d) to compare trends in patent documents raised with the current situation prevailing in the Brazilian legislation on waste disposal technology. The methodology was qualitative and quantitative character descriptive and exploratory, the theme for the characterization and description of the universe to be studied. As an instrument of data collection, made use of technological monitoring in databases of patents, and as a means of data analysis, content analysis. The analysis was made within the principles of the STS field that seeks to build an economically stable, environmentally sound and socially just, with which he was expected to contribute and encourage interaction among studies in the area of Intellectual Property with the studies STS field and the issue of environmental sustainability. How results revealed stark contrasts in claims purely technical document that took into account more than just a summary description of the technology in question, but also with aspects of the socio-economic sustainability and environmental. Through the study of classifications more common in the universe and study the applications presented in the documents, it was possible to categorize the universe of technologies: 1) methods/processes for separation of plastics contained in electronic scrap; 2) methods/processes for metal separation noble; 3) containers for packing and safe transportation of WEEE; 4) other technologies not directly related to the theme studied. It was concluded that universities, government and society as a whole must unite so that new practices are environmentally sound world created and adopted so that the impact has already generated is reversed, or in a more realistic view that new impacts not or are generated, only minimized.