Page 108 - Implementation of ITU-T international standards for sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment: The path to a circular economy in Costa Rica

Implementation of ITU-T international standards for sustainable management of waste
electrical and electronic equipment: The path to a circular economy in Costa Rica

6 Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges worldwide, where digital technologies
have played a decisive role in keeping day-to-day activities in the countries alive. COVID-19
brought unexpected, accelerated, and irreversible changes in the digital transformation, and
will be recognized as a milestone in the era of digitalization.

This transformation will continue to progress even more rapidly in the post-pandemic era,
mainly to reduce identified inequalities between regions. The role of digital technologies in this
transformation is significant, and it must be implemented sustainably and based on circularity.
International standards also play a key role in supporting countries and industry transformation.

The progress of this transformation is linked to the production of EEE to meet current needs,
which inevitably increases the consumption of appliances. Generation of WEEE is a related issue
whose sustainable management has been one of the ICT sector greatest challenges, which will
grow in the post-pandemic era.
Faced with this scenario, it is necessary to develop digital technologies with a circular design
approach, characterized by longer lifetimes and easy repairing. In addition, its components
must be less environmentally harmful and have the potential for recovery from generated
WEEE. It is also important to integrate taken-back materials into value chains, strengthening
circular economy models.
Costa Rica is not a producer of EEE, which limits its participation in the development of
technologies for domestic consumption with a circular approach. As a consequence, it
consumes what the international market offers and must orient its national system according
to the technologies entering the country.

As an importer and consumer of EEE, the country has made efforts to develop sustainable
management of material flows at the national level, including WEEE. This has allowed Costa
Rica to have a WEEE management system up and running based on a waste management
hierarchy. The country has a robust national regulation, which tackles important principles for
WEEE sustainable management such as REP. The national system, together with policies, plans,
and strategies developed is geared to adopt circular economy models in the WEEE sector.

The implementation of ITU-T standards L.1031 “Guideline for achieving the e-waste targets of the
Connect 2030 Agenda” and L.1032 “Guidelines and certification schemes for e-waste recyclers”
will allow Costa Rica to improve its existing national system, as hotspots and improvement
opportunities have been identified and can be addressed in the short- and medium-term. The
information generated will enable the development of public policies, strengthen national
legislation, set recovery targets, and evaluate the national system.
One specific contribution is the development of material flows and balances for eleven tracers
(refrigerators, washing machines, flat-panel TVs, CRT TVs, cell phones, small IT equipment,
laptops, PCs, CRT monitors, and flat-panel monitors), whose interest comes from their recovery
value, their environmental impacts, or both. This information is useful for the UNIDO-GEF
project, “Strengthening of National Initiatives and Enhancement of Regional Cooperation for
the Environmentally Sound Management of POPs in Waste of Electronic or Electrical Equipment
(WEEE)”.

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