E-waste management facing the Sustainable Development Goals: the London, Accra and Sao Paulo case studies

• Grant number: 19/11987-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Pedro Roberto Jacobi
• Grantee: Kauê Lopes dos Santos
• Supervisor: Gareth Alun Jones
• Host Institution: Instituto de Energia e Ambiente (IEE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/22067-0 - The environmental and economic impacts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) processing in urban Global South urban: a comparative analysis between São Paulo Macrometropole (Brazil) and Greater Accra Region (Ghana), BP.PD

Abstract

The significant increase in the production of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) - commonly known as e-waste - in recent years has raised many concerns among scientists due to the risks that inappropriate management and its negative effective on human health and the environment, mostly in urban areas. At the same time, the recycling of WEEE represents a strong possibility of implementing reverse logistics and circular economy. The present project aims to analyze and compare three e-waste management systems in distinct urban agglomerations - London Larger Urban Zone (UK), Great Accra Region (Ghana) and Paulista Macrometropolis (Brazil) - in order to assess to what extent they are moving towards the Sustainable Development Goals (more specifically, goals 3, 6, 8, 11, 12 and 14) established by the UN 2030 Agenda. From that basis, it will be possible to raise the challenges presented by these case studies - given the national / regional contexts in which they are embedded - and to point out which legal or technical instruments have been successful and which, if endowed with universality, could be transferred to other urban realities. With this research project, it is also expected to deepen the scientific investigations of the FAPESP Project The environmental and economic impacts of the processing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in the global urban south (2017 / 22067-0) and of the FAPESP Thematic Project Environmental Governance of the Paulista Macrometropolis facing climatic variability (2015/03804-9), especially regarding the debate on environmental governance and sanitation in the urban space.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CAMPELLO TORRES, PEDRO HENRIQUE; GONCALVES, DEMERVAL APARECIDO; MENDES DE ALMEIDA COLLACO, FLAVIA; LOPES DOS SANTOS, KAUE; CANIL, KATIA; CABRAL DE SOUSA JUNIOR, WILSON; JACOBI, PEDRO ROBERTO. Vulnerability of the Sao Paulo Macro Metropolis to Droughts and Natural Disasters: Local to Regional Climate Risk Assessments and Policy Responses. SUSTAINABILITY, v. 13, n. 1, JAN 2021. (15/03804-9, 19/11987-7, 19/05644-0, 17/22067-0, 18/06685-9)

DOS SANTOS, KAUE LOPES; JACOBI, PEDRO ROBERTO. Alignments between e-waste legislation and the Sustainable Development Goals: the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Ghana case studies. GEO-GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT, v. 9, n. 1, p. 16-pg., 2022-01-01. (19/11987-7, 15/03804-9)

DOS SANTOS, KAUE LOPES. Unequal geographies of urban mining: E-waste management in London, Sao Paulo and Accra. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING E-NATURE AND SPACE, v. N/A, p. 15-pg., 2022-09-27. (19/11987-7, 17/22067-0)