Challenges in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management: A Profitability Assessment in Three European Countries

D’Adamo, Idiano; Rosa, Paolo; Terzi, Sergio

doi:10.3390/su8070633

Cited by 32 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(71 reference statements)

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“…Society is increasingly demanding environment-friendly businesses. The development of regulations, by imposing sustainable criteria, could limit the discretion of companies in order to protect the environment and the cycle of waste [71][72][73], water [74], and emissions [10,75].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Renewable Energy Consumption, Social Factors, and Health: A Panel Vector Auto Regression Analysis of a Cluster of 12 EU Countries

2020

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One of the key indicators of a population's well-being and the economic development of a country is represented by health, the main proxy for which is life expectancy at birth. Some factors, such as industrialization and modernization, have allowed this to improve considerably. On the other hand, along with high global population growth, the factor which may jeopardize human health the most is environmental degradation, which can be tackled through the transition to renewable energy. The main purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between renewable energy consumption, social factors, and health, using a Panel Vector Auto Regression (PVAR) technique. We explore the link between some proxy variables for renewable energy consumption, government policy, general public awareness, the market, lobbying activity, the energy dependence on third countries, and health, spanning the period from 1990 to 2015, for a cluster of 12 European countries characterized by common features. Specifically, our analysis shows the importance of having a stringent policy for the development of renewable energy consumption and its influence over other social factors, rather than the existence of causal relationships between health and renewable energy consumption for the analyzed countries. This kind of analysis has a great potential for policy-makers. Further, a deeper understanding of these relationships can create a more effective decision-making process. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2915 2 of 16Concerning the latter, the increasing interest in renewable energy is also due to Europe's dependency on foreign energy sources and to the recent concerns over the volatility of the price of crude oil [8].Moreover, we are currently witnessing an ongoing debate over how to balance the relationships between human health, environmental concerns, and economic development [12][13][14].In this regard, in December 2019 the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, which establishes that the European Union needs to transform itself into a resource-efficient and competitive economy with zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, and its economic growth should detach itself from resources use. The main objective is to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy, and, consequently, stopping climate change, cutting pollution, and improving the health of population [12].Moreover, European Union member countries launched, at the beginning of 2005, the CO 2 emissions trading scheme. Setting environmental taxes is very useful for two reasons. First, they represent an incentive for companies to research and invest in more environmentally friendly technologies, or to deploy fewer resources. Secondly, the increased fiscal revenue resulting from higher tax collection can be used to reduce taxes on labor, savings, and capital, thereby favoring higher investment in environmental conservation [13].Health, the main proxy for which is life expectancy at birth, certainly represents one of the key indicators of ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Renewable Energy Consumption, Social Factors, and Health: A Panel Vector Auto Regression Analysis of a Cluster of 12 EU Countries

2020

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“…One group has examined techniques and practices to minimize resource and energy usage and waste generation [9,10]. A second group has investigated the challenges of WER management and sustainable manufacturing [11,12]. A third set has evaluated the impacts of WER management on the environmental, financial and social performance of manufacturers [13,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Environmental Factors on Waste, Energy, and Resource Management and Sustainable Performance

et al. 2019

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The management of waste, energy, and resources has received special attention from academics and practitioners due to the growing evidence for its effects on the environment. The aim of this study is to investigate the environmental drivers of waste, energy, and resource management and, in turn, its effect on the sustainable performance of manufacturing firms. The data were collected from a survey of 173 large manufacturing firms in Malaysia and analysed using partial least squares. The results indicate that although environmental regulatory pressure, customer pressure, environmental uncertainty, and expected business benefits have positive effects on the extent of waste, energy, and resource management, social responsibility has no effect. Furthermore, waste, energy, and resource management has a positive effect on the sustainable performance of large manufacturing firms. The findings of this study extend the knowledge of the drivers and outcomes of waste, energy, and resource management. The results can help policymakers to adjust policies and strategies in a way to inspire managers to implement waste, energy, and resource management.

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“…The recycling of WEEE is a complex task requiring an effective technical infrastructure and managerial framework [15,16], and it has potential to generate significant economic wealth from recovered rare and important metals [12,17,18]. By way of example, the economic potential for recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) from WEEE collected from EU households alone, was estimated to be 3-6 thousand million EUR (profitability as net present value) for 2030 [19]. However, it should be noted that large quantities of WEEE are subject to complex transboundary movements that result from both legal and illegal activities [20][21][22], and flows from high-income countries to low-or middle-income countries can create risk to human health and the environment, especially when low-standard rudimentary methods are used to process WEEE [23,24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Link between e-Waste and GDP—New Insights from Data from the Pan-European Region

Kusch

Hills

2017

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Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is difficult to sustainably manage. One key issue is the challenge of planning for WEEE flows as current and future quantities of waste are difficult to predict. To address this, WEEE generation and gross domestic product (GDP) data from 50 countries of the pan-European region were assessed. A high economic elasticity was identified, indicating that WEEE and GDP are closely interlinked. More detailed analyses revealed that GDP at purchasing power parity (GDP PPP) is a more meaningful measure when looking at WEEE flows, as a linear dependency between WEEE generation and GDP PPP was identified. This dependency applies to the whole region, regardless of the economic developmental stage of individual countries. In the pan-European region, an increase of 1000 international $ GDP PPP means an additional 0.5 kg WEEE is generated that requires management.

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Challenges in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Management: A Profitability Assessment in Three European Countries

Cited by 32 publications

References 45 publications

Relationships between Renewable Energy Consumption, Social Factors, and Health: A Panel Vector Auto Regression Analysis of a Cluster of 12 EU Countries

Relationships between Renewable Energy Consumption, Social Factors, and Health: A Panel Vector Auto Regression Analysis of a Cluster of 12 EU Countries

Impacts of Environmental Factors on Waste, Energy, and Resource Management and Sustainable Performance

The Link between e-Waste and GDP—New Insights from Data from the Pan-European Region

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