Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) estimation: A case study of Ahvaz City, Iran

Abstract

The development of new technologies and the increasing consumption of electronic and electrical equipment have led to increased generation of e-waste in the municipal waste streams. This waste due to the presence of hazardous substances in its composition needs specific attention and management. The present study was carried out in Ahvaz metropolis using a survey method in 2011. For estimating the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) generated, the “use and consumption” method was used. In order to determine the amounts of the electrical and electronic equipment that were used and their lifetime, and for investigating the current status of e-waste management in Ahvaz, an appropriate questionnaire was devised. In 2011, the total number of discarded electronic items was 2,157,742 units. According to the average weight of the equipment, the total generation of e-waste was 9952.25 metric tons per year and was 9.95 kg per capita per year. The highest e-waste generated was related to air conditioners, with 3125.36 metric tons per year, followed by the wastes from refrigerators and freezers, washing machines, and televisions. The wastes from desktop computers and laptops were 418 and 63 metric tons/year, respectively, and the corresponding values per capita were 0.42 and 0.063 kg, respectively. These results also showed that 10 tons fixed phones, 25 tons mobile phones, and by considering an average lifetime of 3 years for each lamp about 320 tons lamps were generated as e-waste in Ahvaz in the year 2011. Based on this study, currently there is not an integrated system for proper management of WEEE in Ahvaz, and this waste stream is collected and disposed of with other municipal waste. Some measures, including a specific collection system, recycling of valuable substances, and proper treatment and disposal, should be done about such waste.

Implications: Ahvaz is one of the most important economic centers of Iran, and to the best of our knowledge, no study has been carried out to estimate the generation of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in this city. Therefore, the authors estimated the generation of the WEEE by the “use and consumption” method. The results of this study can be useful not only for decision-making organizations of Ahvaz to manage and recycle this type of waste but also can be used as a method to estimate the generation of e-waste in different locations of the world, especially in places where the generation of such waste could be a risk to human health and the environment.

Introduction

Consumers’ demands, changes in lifestyle, and technological development have been raising the consumption rate of electronic products. Thus, increased production and consumption will have also been increasing the amount of waste produced (Khattar and Kaur, 2007; Chung et al., 2011). It was estimated that about 20–50 million tons e-waste is generated in the world annually, which is equivalent to 1–3% of the total municipal waste production of 1636 million tons per year (Ongondo et al., 2011; Robinson, 2009). The Europe Union (EU) countries dispose of an estimated of 6.5 million tons waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE; 8% by volume of all municipal waste) per year. By 2015, the generation of such waste could be as high as 12 million tons in the EU countries (Robinson, 2009). In the developing and transitional countries, on average, the corresponding value is equal to 1–2% of the total solid waste, and it is expected to increase even more in the future (Mmereki et al., 2012).

WEEE contains hazardous materials such as heavy metals and persistence organic materials. It can also be regarded as a resource of valuable materials such as ferrous and nonferrous metals, engineering plastics, precious metals, platinum group metals, and rare earths elements (Ongondo et al., 2011; Lau et al., 2013; Menad et al., 2013; Robinson, 2009).

Obtaining information on quantities and composition of the generated waste is necessary for planning and management of e-waste. Different methods have been evaluated to estimate the amounts of WEEE generated in the various locations in the world. For instance, Kim et al. (2013) used a population balance model to estimate the amount of WEEE generated in South Korea. The model was based on a life span distribution analysis. They reported, “1.2 million air conditioners, 2.5 million televisions, 1.3 million microwave ovens, 1.2 million refrigerators, 17.0 million mobile phones, 1.7 million refrigerators, 2.0 million vacuum cleaners, and 1.4 million washing machines were generated as WEEE in 2010.”

Steubing et al. (2010) carried out a study in Chile and used material flow analysis to assess the generation of e-waste from computers equipment (desktop and laptop PCs [personal computers] as well as CRT [cathode ray tube] and LCD [liquid crystal display] monitors). They estimated that about 10,000 and 20,000 tons of computer waste would be generated in the years of 2010 and 2020, respectively.

Kahhat and Williams (2009) analyzed the flow of used PCs imported into Peru. The authors stated that printed circuit boards were usually not recycled domestically but were exported to Europe for advanced recycling or to China for informal recycling.

The material flow of used PCs in Japan was analyzed by Yoshida et al. (2009). They developed a method to estimate the material flow of used PCs, and according to that method, it was reported that 3.92 million and 4.88 million used PCs were discarded in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

Müller et al. (2009) used a simplified model to estimate the quantities of WEEE generated. The model relies on a flow with three processes: production, consumption, and disposal, for a time-invariant system. The average weights for desktop computers and laptops were 25 and 4 kg, respectively. With these assumptions, they calculated a global average of 0.3 kg/year per capita of PC waste generated.

In Iran, a few studies have been performed to investigate e-waste generation, management, and safe disposal. For instance, Taghipour et al. (2012) selected eight electronic products to determine their e-waste generation rate during 2008–2010; Tehran and Tabriz cities were selected to assess the current condition of e-waste management in the country. The authors reported that the total amounts of e-waste generated were 115,286, 112,914, and 115,151 metric tons in the country in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively. In another study, Zand and Abduli (2008) also investigated the current situation of used household batteries and appropriate management policies in Iran. They reported that more than 9800 metric tons of household batteries were imported into Iran in recent decade; subsequently, it was expected that more than 9000 metric tons of spent household batteries would be dumped in municipal landfills of Iran in recent decade.

The present study aimed to estimate the amounts of the WEEE generated in Ahvaz, a major city in southwestern of Iran. To accomplish this, some equipment, including refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, televisions, audio systems, computers, telephones, and cell phones, were chosen as indicators to measure the WEEE generated in Ahvaz City. They are the most representatives of WEEE generated in terms of weight, sales volume, lifetime, and presence and importance of hazardous substances (Araújo et al., 2012). The model presented here tries to analyze these items according to their average lifetime.

Research Methods

Description of the study area

Ahvaz, the capital city of Khuzestan Province, is one of the major cities of Iran, located in an arid area in southwestern of Iran. The geographical location of Ahvaz is 31°20ʹN, 48°40ʹE, and 18 m above sea level. The presence of large industrial plants has turned Ahvaz into one of the most important industrial centers of Iran, attracting many immigrants to Ahvaz. The city has a total population of near 1 million and a total surface area of 220 km² (Goudarzi et al., 2014; Ahvaz Municipality, 2011).

Sampling method

In 2011, the total number of households in Ahvaz and the average number of people in each household were 293,000 and 4.6, respectively. In our research, we adopted the following sample size (ss) formula in order to select a random sample of the population of our study area (Creative Research Systems, 2011).

(1)

where z = z value (e.g., 1.96 for 95% confidence level), p = the percentage of respondents who selected a choice, expressed as decimal (0.5 used for the sample size needed), and d = confidence interval or margin of error expressed as a decimal. The equation is used for infinitive sampling but because the number of households of our study is known, the correction for a finite number of households is as follows:

(2)

where F = the number of households in Ahvaz. Based on the sample size formulas, we selected z = 1.96, p = 0.5, and d = 5% and the calculated sample size was obtained to be 384. Based on the calculated sample size, we selected 400 households as the sample size. In a similar study conducted by Afroz et al. (2013), for calculating the sample size, a total sample size of 383 was achieved by using this method. According to the literature, for a target population over than 5000, a sample size of 400 will be adequate (Leedy and Ormrod, 2005). In this study, in order to estimate the number and lifetime of electrical and electronic equipment, and for investigating the current situation of e-waste management in Ahvaz City, an appropriate questionnaire was devised. In order to validate the questionnaire, we obtained the opinions and comments of professionals and experts in solid waste management, and based on their feedback, the questionnaire was revised and approved. Some key questions of the questionnaire that are related to the specific objectives are presented in the Appendix. The reliability of questionnaire was determined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, and the value of 0.83 was obtained. As mentioned, the survey achieved a total sample size of 400 households. We selected 50 households randomly from the eight municipality districts of Ahvaz City and distributed the questionnaires among them. The face-to-face interview method with well-trained interviewers was used to complete the questionnaires because this method provides the most complete, comprehensive, and meaningful high-quality data, and a response rate of 100% was achieved.

The information about the current situation of e-waste management in this city was obtained from the municipality. After collecting the data, statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software version 17 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA).

There are several methods, such as the time step method, the market supply method, the Carnegie Mellon method, and some other approximation methods, that were suggested by the European environmental agency for the investigation of WEEE potential generation (Babu et al., 2007).

To date, no known studies have been done to estimate WEEE generation, recycling, treatment, and disposal in Ahvaz City. In the present study, the quantities of e-wastes were estimated using the “use and consumption” method. In this method, an average number of electrical and electronic equipment is considered for a typical household, and by considering the useful life of the equipment, the amount of e-waste can be estimated. The lifetime of the product is an essential factor for estimating the amount of WEEE generated. The total time that a product remains at the system boundaries from the retail points until the moment it is sent to the solid waste management system is called the lifetime of the product (Araújo et al., 2012).

The contribution of an item to annual e-waste generation in Ahvaz was calculated by the following equation (Robinson, 2009):

(3)

where E (kg/year) is the quantity of e-waste generated, M (kg) is the weight of item, N is the number of e-products units in use, L (years) is the average lifetime of the product.

Results and Discussion

Total quantities of WEEE generated

The total quantities of e-waste generated along with the details of the studied equipment are shown in Table 1. As previously mentioned, the amount of e-waste, due to high consumption of electronic products and changing lifestyle, has been increasing. In 2011, the total number of discarded electronic items was 2,157,742 units in the city. According to the average weight of the equipment, the total generation of the e-waste was 9952.25 metric tons per year. Based on the statistics provided by the municipality of Ahvaz City, about 1000 metric tons municipal solid waste was produced per day; therefore, the e-waste contributes to 2.72% of the total waste generated in this city. In this year, 9.95 kg electrical and electronic waste was generated per capita. That is lower than the European countries but greater than the developing countries. For instance, it was estimated that Europeans produce 14 kg WEEE per capita per year by 2015 (Goosey, 2004). Germany and the UK produced 13.3 and 15.8 kg per year, respectively (Ongondo et al., 2011), and the generation of such waste in Brazil was 3.4 kg per capita per year for the year of 2008 (Araújo et al., 2012). The higher e-waste production in this city can be attributed to the higher income and welfare, development, and social progress, particularly, in the recent decades. In order to get a closer view, the production of different types of electrical and electronic waste in Ahvaz was evaluated in details. In addition, for comparison and better understanding, some estimates on the generation of different waste electrical and electronic equipment by some methods are summarized in Table 2. However, the results of WEEE estimation studies are widely different because of the used methods and initial considered assumptions; consequently, the comparison is very difficult.

Table 1. The quantities of WEEE generated in Ahvaz City in the year of 2011

Equipment	Number Owned by Households	Number Per User	Lifetime (years)	Number of Discards	Weight (kg)	WEEE Generated (tons/year)	WEEE Per Capita
Refrigerators	293,000	1	15	19,533	75	1465	1.47
Freezers	293,000	1	15	19,533	75	1465	1.47
Televisions	293,000	1	12	24,417	30	732.5	0.73
Washing machines	293,000	1	10	29,300	40	1172	1.17
Dish washers	87,900	0.3	10	8790	41	360.39	0.36
Audio systems	293,000	1	10	29,300	10	293	0.29
Air conditioners	586,000	2	15	39,067	80	3125.36	3.12
Desktop computers	293,000	1	7	41,857	10	419	0.42
Monitors	293,000	1	7	41,857	12	502	0.50
Laptops	146,500	0.5	7	20,929	3	63	0.063
Cell phones	1,000,000	1	4	250,000	0.1	25	0.025
Telephones	331,592	1	10	33,159	0.3	10	0.01
Lamps	400,000	12	3	1,600,000	0.2	320	0.32
Total						9952.25

Note: The lifetime and weight of the equipment were obtained from the survey results and the literature (Robinson, 2009; Rocha, 2009; Dwivedy and Mittal, 2010).

Large household appliances

One of the major sources producing electrical and electronic waste is the household sector. This sector includes a wide range of low volume to bulky e-waste. In this study, large household goods such as freezers, refrigerators, washing machines, microwaves, dishwashers, air conditioners, and audio systems were investigated. The numbers and characteristics of the bulky electronic equipment in Ahvaz City are presented in Table 1. From the table it can be clearly seen that air conditioners produce the highest e-waste quantity, followed by refrigerators and freezers, washing machines, and televisions. Amongst all the municipal electrical and electronic waste, the highest WEEE per capita is related to air conditioners; this can be attributed to their high weight and volume. Another bulky and heavy electrical item, which is increasingly used by Iranian households, is dishwasher machine. About 30% of the studied households used this device. Meanwhile, Ahvaz is an arid area, is located at southwestern of Iran, a region known for its very humid and warm weather, and high ambient temperature that in many cases rises to over than 50 °C in summer, cooling appliances such as refrigerator and air conditioner are widely used almost throughout of the year. Consequently, due to heavy continuous use and repair, the useful life of these types of equipment may be reduced. This, in turn, increases the flow of these types of equipment in the waste streams. Therefore, it is necessary that these types of waste be collected and recycled properly.

Computers

With respect to transferring of social interactions from actual and physical spaces of a society to the virtual world in cyber and digital space, the application of electronic equipment such as desktop computers, laptops, and monitors required for these quick and profound software transformations has been increasing rapidly. In addition, the widespread use, and novel and innovative providing of these equipment due to rapid technological progress, causes rapid obsolescence of electronic equipment, especially computers. Therefore, nowadays, this equipment is present in the waste streams and eventually disposed into the environment. For doing calculations, based on the survey results each household had a computer and each two households had a laptop. In 2011, the number of households living in Ahvaz City was 293,000. Nowadays, the lifetime of computers is regularly decreasing; however, according to the current social situation of the city as well as the high storage time at home before disposal, the lifetimes of computers and laptops were considered to be 7 years and their weights were 10 and 3 kg, respectively. Thus, the amounts of waste produced by the computers and laptops were 418 and 63 metric tons per year, respectively, and the amounts per capita per year were 0.42 and 0.063 kg, respectively.

Fixed-line telephone

Based on the statistics provided by the Department of Telecommunications of Khuzestan Province, the number of fixed-line telephones was 331,592 subscribers in the year of 2011. Of these, 78% belongs to residential sector, 9.5% to commercial and industrial sectors, and 4.5% to government sector. If each household has a phone device that has weight of 300 g and lifetime of 10 year, 10 metric tons of such waste will be produced per year, which means the amount of waste per capita will be 10 g.

Cell phone

In the present time, almost all Iranian citizens have a mobile phone. On the other hand, the advanced features that are installed on the mobile phone make it as a device that contains important part of every citizen’s information, and it is no longer just used as a cell phone to communicate. In 1993, cell phone was entered into Iran, and in the same year, the registration to get subscriber identification module (SIM) cards was started. Gradually, people have become familiar with the technology, and by decreasing the price of SIM cards, the applicants for this product have increased. According to the statistics released by the Mobile Communication of Iran and as shown in Figure 1, the number of mobile subscribers in 2005 was 8,510,513 persons, and then with rapid development of the infrastructure system of the technology, the number of subscribers grew to 48 million in 2011. The penetration coefficient increased from 12% in 2005 to 63% in 2011 (Figure 2). The number of mobile phone subscribers in Ahvaz in the year of 2011 was 965,284 subscribers (Telecommunication Company of Iran, 2013). Based on the results obtained from the households of Ahvaz and the literature, the average lifetime of 4 years was chosen for mobile phone. By considering 100 g weight per mobile phone, the amount of cell phone waste stream generated in 2011 were 25 metric tons per year and 25 g per capita, respectively.

Figure 1. Trends in the number of subscribers of fixed-line telephones, cell phones, and Internet users in the country.

Figure 2. Trends in the penetration coefficients of telephones and cell phones in the country.

Lamps

The use of energy saving lamps compared with conventional lamps has widely increased due to its longer life span (6–8-fold). A conventional lamp has a life span of around 1000 hr, whereas the corresponding figure for a compressed fluorescent lamp (CFL) is 6000–8000 hr. These lamps have widespread popularity among the electricity consumers, especially in residential sector, because of less production of heat, lower energy consumption (3–5 times less), and greater safety factor. During the third and fourth national programs of economic and social development (2000–2010), the program of energy-saving lamp use promotion had focused on preparing and distribution of CFLs, so that more than 100 million CFLs were distributed among the people with subsidized price. According to the available statistics, the number of CFLs installed throughout the country was estimated to be more than 120 million blazes, which contributes to 9% of the national consumed energy. It also coincides with targeted subsides, and with the increase in power price, the demand for energy-saving lamps has increased in the country (Iran Energy Efficiency Organization, 2011). According to the performed surveys and based on building construction patterns in the country, on average, each household uses approximately 12 CFL lamps.

The number of power subscribers in Ahvaz was increasing, from 288,961 subscribers in 2007 to 400,000 subscribers in 2011. Of these, approximately, 84% was residential sector, 12% was commercial sector, and 4% was public sector. Counting the number of subscribers and the number of lamps used per household in Ahvaz, in the year of 2011, the total number of lamps that were used was 4,800,000 lights. Considering life span of 3 years for each lamp, the amount of lamps discarded annually was 1.6 million lights or about 320 metric tons per year.

Batteries

The development of new technologies in recent decades, coupled with the widely increasing use of goods such as mobile phones, radiotelephones, flashlights, radios, clocks, calculators, toys, etc., in developed and even developing countries have led to the increased use of batteries. Iran is a developing country, so the use of new technological equipment such as computer accessories, phones, digital cameras, and other similar products has widely been increasing. Consequently, the generation of waste batteries has increased. Various types of household batteries, which are imported into Iran, include nickel-cadmium, lithium, alkaline, mercuric oxide, silver oxide, and zinc batteries. These batteries contain a variety of hazardous materials, such as heavy metals, that may become toxic contaminants in the landfill leachate and compost. Much concern has been directed to the high percentage of mercury, cadmium, and lead in municipal solid waste (MSW) that is attributed to used batteries. Silver, zinc, nickel, manganese, lithium, chromium, and arsenic are other potentially toxic metals that may be present in batteries (Tchobanoglous and Kreith, 2002).

The largest percentage of household batteries imported and sold in Iran is alkaline batteries because of low toxicity of its components. Currently, there is not any facility in Iran to reclaim the used batteries. Instead, they are either shipped overseas for reclamation or disposed in domestic hazardous waste landfills. We considered a useful lifetime of 3 months for a household battery to estimate the amount of used batteries. Based on the information obtained from the houses of Ahvaz City, approximately each house used about 20 batteries per year for devices such as TV remote control, watches, etc. On average, each battery had a weight of about 25 g. According to these information and assumptions, we estimated that about 147 metric tons waste batteries were produced in Ahvaz; consequently, due to the lack of reclamation facilities in this city, a great fraction of them was collect with MSW and sent to the landfill sites.

Table 2. Some estimates on WEEE generation by different methodologies

Equipment	Year	Methodology	WEEE Generated	Reference
Air conditioners	2010	Population balance model (PBM)	1.16 million (N)	Kim et al., 2013
Kimchi refrigerators			1.21 million
Microwave ovens			1.29 million
Mobile phones			17.02 million
Refrigerators			1.73 million
Televisions			2.54 million
Vacuum cleaners			2.04 million
Washing machines			1.40 million
Computer equipment	2010	Material flow analysis	8000 tons for lower scenario	Steubing et al., 2010
			10,200 tons for baseline scenario
			14,000 tons for upper scenario
Nonplasma and non-liquid crystal display televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and personal computers	2011	Questionnaire approach	80,433 tons (11.5 kg/capita)	Chung et al., 2011
Central processing unit, laptops, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, printers, and copiers	2012	Stanford method proposed by IMS	658 tons	Mmereki et al., 2012
	Estimation for 2015		3574 tons
Televisions, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, audio systems, mature market subtotal, computers, cell phones, and nonmature subtotal	2008	For mature product consumption and use method and for nonmature products, time step method were used	709,012 tons	Araújo et al., 2012
Personal computers (PC), television, refrigerators, and washing machines	2007–2011	Algorithm model	2.5 million metric tons	Dwivedy and Mittal, 2010

Current status of e-waste management in Ahvaz

Based on the results of the questionnaires, the average storage period of used WEEE at a household of Ahvaz was about 1 year. Depending on the available space inside the house, this period can increase. This long storage period is attributed to the empty adequate space and lack of a proper collection system especially in the urban areas where large villa houses are located.

Collection

Currently, e-waste is collected mixed with the other wastes generated in Ahvaz. In addition, a portion of the used electronic and electric items is collected by informal sector and is sold to the secondhand materials buyer in the city.

Separation and recycling

As noted earlier, e-waste is not separated in Ahvaz. A large quantity of the families gives old electronic devices to their relatives or other individuals. E-waste collected by informal sector is sold to the waste depots in the city or to scrap dealers, then these materials are separated into different components, particularly metals and plastics, and then sold to the consumer companies such as Khuzestan Steel Company and plastic recycling industries.

Disposal

A portion of e-waste generated in the city that enters into the waste stream is disposed of with other wastes. The landfill site of Ahvaz was located in Boromi region, 5 km from the city, up to 2011. In this site, wastes were landfilled with traditional methods, and modern engineering and sanitary techniques such as leachate collection system and impermeable linear layers were not used. From 2012, the landfill site was transferred to Sofireh region, and basic measures for establishment and operation of sanitary and engineered landfill sites have been done to minimize adverse effects on the groundwater and surface water resources, especially the Karun River that passes through the city and flows into the Persian Gulf.

Conclusion

Changes in lifestyle of people, technological development, and low-cost availability of electronic gadgets have led to increased consumption rates of electronic products. Consequently, the global quantities of WEEE are on an upward trend across the globe.

In this study, we estimated the quantities of WEEE generated from some e-products in Ahvaz in 2011 using “use and consumption” method. Based on our analyses, the total amount of WEEE generated was estimated to be 9952 metric tons in 2011 in Ahvaz City. Air conditioners had greater contribution to the WEEE generated followed by refrigerators and freezers. Due to high generation of WEEE and the lack of proper managing systems for this type of waste in the city, it is predicted that such waste would have some adverse effects on the health of Ahvaz citizens and the environment as well. Therefore, it is necessary that the municipality along with the source separation programs also do field surveys on the quality and the quantity of e-waste generated to provide necessary infrastructures for separation, collection, recycling, and management of such waste.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the municipality and the citizens of Ahvaz City for their collaboration in this study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nadali Alavi

Nadali Alavi is an associate professor at the Department of Environmental Health Engineering and is a member of Environmental Technology Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

Mohammad Shirmardi

Mohammad Shirmardi is a Ph.D student, and Aliakbar Babaei and Afshin Takdastan are assistant professors at the Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

Nastaran Bagheri

Nastaran Bagheri is researcher at the Department of Environmental Management at Science and Research Branch of Khuzestan, Islamic Azad University, Ahvaz, Iran.

Appendix: Key questions of the questionnaire

1. How many of the following types of appliances are being used, and how many are stored (non-functioning or obsolete) in your household? Please indicate with “0” if your household does not have such appliance

Appliance	In-use set(s)	Stored set(s)	Appliance	In-use set (s)	Stored set(s)
Refrigerator			Desktop computers
Freezer			Monitors
Television			Laptops
Washing machine			Cell phones
Dish washer			Telephones
Audio system			Lamps
Air conditioner

2. How long has your household stored the discarded (not in use anymore) set (s) of the following appliances in your house? Please write “0” if the above-mentioned appliances have been not sored in your house.

Appliance	Stored time yr.(s)	Appliance	Stored time yr.(s)
Refrigerator		Desktop computers
Freezer		Monitors
Television		Laptops
Washing machine		Cell phones
Dish washer		Telephones
Audio system		Lamps
Air conditioner

3. The following questions are some examples of the questions that asked to investigate the knowledge of the households about WEEE.

Objective	Question	Type of answer
To investigate the knowledge of the households	Do you know that e-waste has many adverse impacts on your health and the environment?	Yes No
	Do you know computers are toxic wastes to the environment?	Yes No
	Do you know what the average stored time of used equipment is?	See question 1

4. The following are two example questions that asked to investigate how the households manage their e-waste produced

Does your household separate the e-waste from other wastes generated?

1. Yes

2. No

3. Somewhat

What does your household with any electrical and electronic equipment when it becomes obsolete and cannot be repaired?

1. Store in house

2. Return to the manufacturer

3. Sell it to e-waste collectors

4. Throw it out

5. Disassemble them and take the useful parts away and discard the rest

6. Change it with a newer one at lower cost at electronic retail stores

7. Put it curbside with other wastes to collect by the municipality

8. Other, please specify