ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS OF THE BRAZILIAN SOLID WASTE POLICY: FROM MANUFACTURER TO ORGANIZATIONAL CONSUMER IN THE MEDICAL DEVICES SECTOR

Abstract

The impact caused to the environment by the electronic products disposal has been turning the environmental regulations a global trend regarding the proper management of Electrical & Electronic Equipment Waste (REEE). The Brazilian government, aware of this need, developed and promulgated in 2010 the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), which gives the responsability to the companies of several economic branches and other supply chain participants for the final destination of the goods when they reach the end of their life cycle or cannot be used by the organizational user anymore. Due to these new demands, a project started in 2010 resulting from the partnership between Renato Archer Information Technology Center (CTI) and the Brazilian Association of the Industry of Medical Equipments, Dental, Hospital and Laboratories (ABIMO), called CTI-ABIMO Project, to support these companies to be adjusted to the new environmental regulations. The focused branch uses technology intensively, it is an exporter one and it consists mainly of small and medium national companies. The scope of this study is to report the fundamentals, methods and results of CTI-ABIMO project to support pilot companies to be adjusted to the PNRS requirements in order to keep their competitiveness and contributing to the sustainability of the Brazilian electromedical equipment industries. The specificities of this company branch for the REEE management were also considered, including: long-life equipments compared with other electronic products, predominance of hospitals and clinics as final customers and significant portion of government purchases on the total of the branch sales.