ELECTRONIC WASTE MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

Abstract

The amount of electronics waste produced in the world is growing rapidly due to constant technological advancement and consumer practice imposed on society. The concern on the part of many governmental and non-governmental agencies, with the management of this waste is increasing in many countries. The Brazilian government, in turn, established the CONAMA Resolution 401 to limit the concentrations of heavy metals in the composition of portable rechargeable batteries and PNRS that determines the implementation of Reverse Logistics for waste such as batteries. As cell phones are discarded in the trash, toxic substances present in these wastes contaminate the ecosystem and humans through bioaccumulation. Thus Reverse Logistics emerges as a strategy for the sustainable development of industries decreasing the inappropriate disposal of products with environmental problems, which highlights the heavy metals in the batteries of mobile phones. It was developed in the present work, collection and characterization of cell phone batteries samples; reading the presence of metals by acidic extraction and atomic absorption spectrometry. Highlighting the importance of the implementation of Reverse Logistics method discussed in this work, as a tool to reduce environmental pollution causes for incorrect disposal of mobile phone batteries in the Metropolitan Region of Cariri. However, for proper operation of this tool is required, necessarily, environmental awareness of the population.