An overview of LCA application in WEEE management: Current practices, progress and challenges

Various environmental tools have been developed to assist in decision-making on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) management, including life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, a total of 61 previous studies were explored to gain insight on current practices, progress and challenges of LCA application in WEEE management. The collection of existing LCA studies in WEEE management has been based on previous studies published since 2005. The content analysis was employed to systematically characterize and classify the existing LCA studies in WEEE management into several groups based on its research area and scope. Various aspects on current LCA application in WEEE management were analysed and it was found that the number of the related studies increased significantly in recent years. Three main research areas of LCA studies in WEEE management were identified, with various research scopes and types of WEEE were used as research subjects. The combination of LCA methodology with other methods becomes a common practice in LCA studies in WEEE management in order to include the interpretation of different dimension such as economic. Finally, the current practices, progress and challenges of LCA application in WEEE management were discussed, and future recommendation was provided. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.