Feasibility of E-Waste Recycling in Morocco PDF

Current Situation and Economic
Feasibility of e-Waste Recycling

in Morocco
FINAL VERSION, 16.09.2011
Fabian Blaser & Mathias Schluep

Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)
St.Gallen, Switzerland
Prepared for HP
in the context of the cooperation Sustainable e-Waste Management
between HP and GIZ
Current Situation and Economic Feasibility of e-Waste Recycling in Morocco
Executive Summary
On a global scale, the strong increase in consumption of electric and electronic equipment (EEE) leads to
growing volumes of e-waste. This trend is boosted by the shortening lifetimes of IT equipment due to its fast
technological development, too. To tackle this waste stream, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) launched into a Public-Private Partnership that aims for a
sustainable e-waste management in selected African countries, amongst others Morocco. Within the scope
of this PPP, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) were engaged by
HP to assess the current situation and the financial viability of e-waste recycling in Morocco. The present
study bases on two previous studies from Rochat and Laissaoui (2008) and GIZ (2010), the latter being
carried out within the framework of this PPP.
It is estimated that in 2008 roughly 40’000 tons of obsolete IT equipment and consumer goods were
generated in Morocco (EU-WEEE categories 3 & 4). Apparently, this volume is generated almost exclusively
by domestic consumption as no evidence of imports of larger quantities of e-waste or second-hand
appliances was found. Despite this considerable volume of obsolete appliances, no adequate e-waste
management is in place so far. E.g. for households, no collection alternative is available. Contrary to
experiences in other African countries, scavengers from the informal sector that collect waste in the streets
don’t seem to focus on e-waste (door-to-door collection). For companies and authorities, few e-waste
collection channels exist. Usually, the appliances are provided to recyclers primarily by tender offers or –
less frequently – donations. The lack of required standards for the e-waste treatment leads to a
discrimination of formal recyclers with sound operations in favour of informal stakeholders in tender offers.
The interest in e-waste among stakeholders in Morocco is growing. Even though the treated volumes are
small, several companies or NGOs are currently dismantling e-waste. Apart from metal refining options (e.g.
Fe, Cu), no national sound solutions for downstream processing are available for most fractions generated
during dismantling. However, for some special fractions national refining options are evolving, e.g. for CRT
monitors. For other fractions, such as precious metals containing printed wiring boards, treatment options
abroad still seems to be advantageous, as currently the global players can guarantee better environmentally
compliance and maximized recovery of valuable materials and thus also better business performance.
To date, no Moroccan legislation exists that tackles the e-waste management specifically. It is loosely
regulated by law 28-00 that covers waste management in general. Morocco is signatory state of the Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Within the scope of the study, an MS Excel-based model was developed to perform a sensitivity analysis of
the business performance of a model dismantling facility. Results suggest that a business model which relies
solely on the income generated by the intrinsic value of the treated material is feasible. However, in none of
the calculated scenarios the break-even is expected to be reached below a treated volume of 500 tonnes per
year. Hence an effective collection system is a precondition for a successful recycling business.
A
4.11.2010 Ø 2010 Ø 2008 Ø 2004-2008 Ø 2004
1'000
Cost/Benefit [in 1'000 MAD]

-
-1'000
-2'000
-3'000
-4'000
-5'000
- 500 1'000 1'500
WEEE treated [t/y]
Dependency of business performance on the amount of

WEEE treated at different commodity prices 2004 – 2010.
The short and long term profitability of the business model depends on a multitude of parameters, which
entail both opportunities and threats. Commodity prices have the strongest impact on the business
performance and pose a relevant risk to the business (see figure above). Due to a different material
composition of specific appliances, the appliance scope which is received by the business are financially
relevant, too. While the treatment of IT equipment including CRT monitors generates a sufficient revenue
with adequate volumes treated, the treatment of TVs is more likely to burden the business financially.
Including reuse and refurbishment in the model calculation suggests that this supplementary activity can add
financial benefits. However, to better assess opportunities and threats associated to reuse and
refurbishment, the calculations should be put on a more reliable data basis.
Although the model results suggest that, currently, e-waste recycling businesses in Morocco can be run by
relying on the intrinsic value of the treated material only, changing conditions can pose relevant risks to the
business. It is therefore concluded that sustainable recycling businesses can only grow in Morocco in
combination with a comprehensive framework, which ensures:
1. that business sustainability is also guaranteed under unfavourable economic conditions, i.e. an
additional flexible income stream enabled through a financing scheme needs to be established for
situations where the intrinsic value of the treated material is not sufficient for a break-even;
2. that recycling businesses can grow in a level playing field; i.e. that legislation, as well as monitoring
and control mechanisms favour high standard operations;
3. that market incentive are set such as high collection and recycling rates are encouraged.
At the absence of a financing scheme, a level playing field and the right market incentive it is likely that
recyclers will not be interested in investing into sound operations and that cherry picking activities with low
environmental and social performance as well as low collection and material recovery rates will prevail the
situation in Morocco.
B
Table of Content
1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 2
1.1 Objectives ........................................................................................................................... 2
2 Framework Conditions ............................................................................................... 4

2.1 Legal Background ............................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Required Standards by HP ................................................................................................. 7
2.3 Recycler and Refiner ........................................................................................................ 12
2.4 Costs................................................................................................................................. 24
3 Model Development .................................................................................................. 28

3.1 Outline of Relevant Elements ........................................................................................... 28
3.2 Model Description ............................................................................................................. 40
4 Model Results ........................................................................................................... 45

4.1 Reference Scenario .......................................................................................................... 45
4.2 Parameter Sensitivities ..................................................................................................... 49
4.3 Including Reuse and Refurbishment ................................................................................. 58
5 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 61
5.1 Current Situation ............................................................................................................... 61
5.2 Economic Feasibility ......................................................................................................... 61
6 References ................................................................................................................ 64
Glossary ........................................................................................................................... 66
List of Figures ................................................................................................................. 68
List of Tables ................................................................................................................... 69
List of Abbreviations....................................................................................................... 70
7 Appendix ...................................................................................................................... I
7.1 WEEE Classification hazardous/non-hazardous ................................................................. I
7.2 Relevant Regulations for WEEE management (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008)........................ II
7.3 Collected economic data ................................................................................................... VI
7.4 Material Composition for Model ......................................................................................... IX
7.5 Assumptions for Appliance Composition ............................................................................ X
I
1 Introduction
Similar to the global markets, the consumption rates of electrical and electronic equipment have
accelerated in Africa in the last decade. As a consequence, the volumes of waste originating from
those appliances, generally known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment WEEE or e-
waste, have risen significantly. To date, Africa is lacking appropriate infrastructure to treat e-waste
in a controlled manner and most activities in this field are performed by the informal sector. This
leads not only to a high loss of valuable resources comprised in e-waste, but to severe
environmental and health issues due to the inadequate treatment procedures applied.
In order to tackle the problem, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)
and Hewlett-Packard (HP) agreed upon a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the following
objective: “The improvement of conditions and structures and the enhancement of know-how for a
sustainable e-waste management in selected African countries”. In the framework of this
cooperation, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Material Science and Technology Empa were
mandated by HP to assess the current situation in respect to e-waste in Morocco. The results
presented in this report form part of this mandate.
1.1 Objectives
The main objective of this study is to provide an overview of the current activities and stakeholders
in the field of e-waste in Morocco. A solid basis for this study are the two previous studies from GIZ
(2010) and Rochat and Laissoui (2008). In line with the purpose of the PPP – namely to aim for a
sustainable e-waste management in the country – an additional major assignment is to assess the
financial viability of a pilot e-waste management at local level.
The study addresses the following aspects:
 The legal framework that affects the e-waste management and the standards requested by
HP of the vendors (recyclers, refiners) involved in the treatment steps.
 An overview of the primary stakeholders currently involved in the e-waste treatment in
Morocco.
 An outline of the processes and elements that make up a sound e-waste treatment:
collection, pre-processing, end-processing & disposal/incineration, transportation,
administration and monitoring.
 The role of the informal sector.
 The assessment of the financial feasibility of e-waste businesses in Morocco by means of a
sensitivity analysis.
The study encompasses appliances of the following WEEE categories1: IT and
telecommunications equipment (cat. 3) and consumer equipment (cat. 4). The focus is set on
1
See classification according to the EU WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:037:0024:0038:EN:PDF
2
desktop PCs, laptops, printers, mobile phones, TV sets, DVD and VHS players as well as audio
appliances, not excluding further appliances of the mentioned categories.
3
2 Framework Conditions
2.1 Legal Background
The most important regulations affecting the management of e-waste are described below. Further
reviews of Moroccan regulations concerning e-waste can be found in GIZ (2010) and Rochat and
Laissaoui (2008). A compilation of the latter is added in appendix 7.2.
2.1.1 Environmental Regulations
While several regulations affect the e-waste management only tangentially, the main basis for the
actual e-waste regulation is law N° 28-00 on “waste management and its disposal”2. Nevertheless,
a specific regulation on e-waste management in Morocco is still lacking.
Law N° 28-00 on the management and disposal of waste (enacted on 22 November 2006)
Currently, this law is the most specific regulation concerning e-waste management. It defines the
classification of the different waste types and regulates the respective management for each type.
According to the type of waste, either the national, regional or local authorities are responsible for
the implementation of the waste management plans; for hazardous wastes the national authorities
are competent and for industrial wastes the regional authorities3 are competent.
Law N° 28-00 regulates the management of hazardous waste as follows (Articles 29-37):
 Hazardous waste can only be treated in installations designated by the authorities
according to the national hazardous waste plan (Art. 29)
 The collection and the transport is subject to an authorization by the administration, which
is valid for max. 5 years and can be renewed (Art. 30).
 For the transport, a label has to be provided on the packing and/or the containers of the
hazardous waste, identifying the waste (Art. 31).
 Hazardous waste transports must be accompanied by a tracking sheet containing
information about the shipper, carrier, consignee, the type and quantity of waste, the mode
of transport and the procedures for its disposal (Art. 32).
 It is prohibited to store hazardous waste in other places than installations which are
designated to this purpose by this law (Art. 33).
 Without a special authorization, the mixing of hazardous waste with other waste categories
is banned (Art. 35).
 Each legal personality working with hazardous waste has to possess an insurance contract
covering his professional responsibility (Art. 36).
2
Loi n° 28-00 relative à la gestion des déchets et à leur elimination (enacted on December 7, 2006)
3
There are 16 regions in Morocco
4
 The producer of hazardous waste and the legal personality possessing an authorization
according to Art. 30 and 35 has to keep a record about the quantities, the type and the
origin of the hazardous waste they are working with (Art. 37).
Law 28-00 prohibits the importation of hazardous waste, thus the importation of e-waste, too.
Furthermore, on 9 July 2008, decree N° 2-07-253 (Catalogue marocain des déchets), which is
based on law 28-00, was enacted. This Moroccan waste catalogue is principally adopted from the
European Waste Catalogue and the Basel Convention (see chapter 2.1.4). The section concerning
WEEE of the Moroccan catalogue is provided in appendix 6.
Law N° 12-03 on environmental impact studies (enacted on 12 May 2003)

Any new project or extension of an existing project for the recycling or disposal of WEEE is subject
to an environmental impact study.
2.1.2 Transportation Restrictions
Since several national and international regulations affect the transport of waste, a short summary
concerning transportation is provided here. As most operations with e-waste, also its transportation
regulation is dependent on the classification of e-waste as hazardous or non-hazardous,
respectively. For further information about this classification, see above (chapter 2.1.1).
2.1.2.1 National
The decree N° 2-04-4684 stipulates that any parcel (french: colis) weighing more than 1 ton has to
be provided with information about its weight, the nature of its content, the minimal length of the
parcel, the position of the loading and the name of its sender. The decree is specifying the article
302 in the Moroccan labour code.
For non-hazardous wastes, no specific regulation on transportation exists. Only law 28-00
delineates by article 26 the mixing of those wastes with domestic wastes:
« Les déchets agricoles et les déchets industriels non dangereux ne peuvent être assimilés aux
déchets ménagers que sur la base d’un rapport d’analyse exigé, en cas de nécessité, par la
commune et élaboré par un laboratoire agréé. Dans ce cas, ces déchets peuvent être transportés
et déposés dans des endroits séparés au sein des décharges contrôlées des déchets ménagers et
assimilés. »
In terms of hazardous waste, law 28-00 imposes the conditions specified in chapter 2.1.1 on
transportation. Especially the articles 30 - 32 and 35 - 37 are relevant with regard to transportation
(see above).
4
http://www.droit-afrique.com/images/textes/Maroc/Maroc%20-%20Decrets%20appli%20code%20du%20travail.pdf
5
Concerning the export of materials, there is another regulation. “On 28 April 2008, note 0604/1313
from the Facilitation Office introduced new provisions for the export of ferrous and non-ferrous
metals, particularly metal debris, scrap metal and others. Since then, exporters of these materials
must produce documents proving the origin of their cargoes in order to obtain customs release.”
Rochat and Laissaoui (2008)
2.1.2.2 International
On the international level, the main regulatory tool for hazardous waste is the Basel Convention, to
which Morocco joined in 1996 (see chapter 2.1.4). The following neighbouring countries of
Morocco also joined the Basel Convention: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania and all
European countries. This might be relevant regarding a potential transportation of e-waste
fractions to or via neighbouring countries.
In Morocco, the Basel Convention was adopted in the national legislation with the Law 28-00,
which regulates the import and export of wastes in general in the Articles 42 – 47. Article 44 says:
« Toute opération d’exportation des déchets est subordonnée à une autorisation délivrée sous
réserve du consentement et de l’accord écrit de l’Etat intéressé et à condition que ces déchets
figurent sur une nomenclature fixée par voie réglementaire.
L’exportation des déchets dangereux est prohibée vers les Etats qui interdisent l’importation de
ces déchets, vers les Etats qui n’ont pas interdit cette importation en l’absence de leur accord écrit
et vers les Etats non parties à la Convention de Bâle sur le contrôle des mouvements
transfrontières des déchets dangereux et de leur élimination. […] »
2.1.3 Health & Safety Regulations
Based on law N° 65-99, the Moroccan labour code5 defines the labour conditions in its book II (Art.
135 – 395). Within this book, several regulations on H&S can be found. For a comparison of the
Moroccan labour regulation with HP Standards on H&S, we refer to chapter 2.2.5.
2.1.4 International Agreements
Morocco has joined several international agreements which affect the production and use of EEE,
but also the recycling of WEEE.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste
and their Disposal6 imposes rules for the import and export of hazardous waste to the signatory
countries. Consequently, their movement and disposal is conducted by established protocols.
5
http://www.justice.gov.ma/fr/legislation/legislation.aspx?t y=2&id_l=124#l124 and http://www.droit-
afrique.com/images/textes/Maroc/Maroc%20-%20Code%20travail.pdf
6
www.basel.int
6
Morocco accessed the Basel Convention in 1996 and implemented it in the law 28-00 (Art. 42 -
47).
As a supplement to the Basel Convention, the Ban Amendment7 prohibits hazardous waste
exports from Annex VII countries (Basel Convention countries that are member of the EU, OECD,
Liechtenstein) to non-Annex VII countries (all other Parties of the Convention). Morocco ratified the
Ban Amendment in 2004. It is important to note that this amendment has not yet entered into force
(3/4 of the Parties who accepted it have to ratify it).
Another international treaty affecting the handling of e-waste is the Stockholm Convention on
Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs)8, which was ratified by Morocco in 2004. It obligates the
signatory countries to establish the needed measures to prohibit the production, utilization, import
and export of POPs (e.g. PCB).
2.2 Required Standards by HP
HP established its own guidelines which each vendor of HP has to comply with. Within the scope
of e-waste recycling, mainly three documents specify those guidelines:
 Electronic Industry Code of Conduct9 (HP 2009),
 Supplier Social & Environmental Responsibility Agreement10 and
 HP Standard 007-2 Vendor Requirements for Hardware Recycling11 (HP 2008a).
Furthermore, the HP Standard 007-3 delineates the requirements for hardware reuse12 (HP
2008b).
The guidelines by HP are not only directed to the first level vendors, but also to the (sub-)vendors
engaged in any of the following associated activities: handling, storage, transportation, and
processing. They range from EHS to operational to social issues a (sub-)vendor should consider.
Thereby, the first level vendors are accountable for the compliance of their sub-vendors with the
HP guidelines. In general, HP requires that “vendors obtain and maintain all applicable permits,
licenses, approvals, agreements, and other required government or regulatory documents.” (HP
2008a)
It is important to note that those guidelines and standards do not only apply for vendors of the
industrialized world, but to all vendors which treat HP products. However, due to less supportive
framework conditions (lacking infrastructure, no specific legislation, etc.) in developing countries, a
gradual implementation of those standards in e.g. Morocco is possible. HP currently is following
such an approach in South Africa.
7
http://www.basel.int/pub/baselban.html
8
www.pops.int
9
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/pdf/supcode.pdf#_new
10
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/pdf/supagree.pdf
11
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/recycle/finalrecstds.pdf
12
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/environment/recycle/finalreustds.pdf
7
Hereafter, a compilation of the most relevant HP specifications is given. For further details, please
consult the original guidelines mentioned.
2.2.1 Reuse, Resale, or Donation of Whole Units, Parts, or Components
The vendor must provide assurance that all of the products sold are in working condition by testing
them and documenting this process (HP 2008a). More details are provided in HP Standard 007-3
(HP 2008b, see above).
2.2.2 Landfill Avoidance and Corresponding Approved Dispositions
“The following products and components must not be land-filled: whole monitors; central
processing units (CPUs); televisions; printers; printed circuit boards containing lead; mercury
lamps and switches; cathode ray tubes (CRTs); CRT glass; batteries; liquid crystal displays
(LCDs); plasma screens; and any materials containing lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent
chromium, or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).” (HP 2008a)
For the majority of those products and components, HP provides specification on their approved
disposition:
 “Mercury lamps must be processed by vendors capable of and experienced in handling
and recycling mercury. The mercury-containing components must be recovered and not be
sent to landfills.
 Batteries must be processed by vendors capable of and experienced in recovering and
recycling lead, acid, cadmium, nickel, copper, zinc, and other metals present in batteries.
 CRTs (cathode ray tubes) must be processed by a leaded-glass recycler or a lead smelter.
 LCDs (liquid crystal displays) must be processed by vendors capable of and experienced in
recovering mercury in backlights.
 PC (printed circuit) boards must be processed by a smelter (or other thermal process)
capable of and experienced in recovering precious metals (gold and so forth) and heavy
metals (lead and so forth) for reuse or by a chemical recovery process. Circuit components
may be extracted for reuse prior to smelting.
 Plastics should be recycled for use in new products, components and materials, as
substitutes for other raw materials, or recycled in another beneficial manner. When
recycling is not economically practical, plastics should be processed for energy recovery at
a facility that is designed to control and monitor emissions from the process. See section
14.9 for related information.
 Printing supplies collected as part of hardware recycling (for example, a print cartridge
present in a printer at the time of its collection): Original HP printer cartridges must be
processed using the HP Inkjet cartridge and LaserJet toner cartridge return and recycling
programs in countries where HP programs are available. All other print supplies must be
8
recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner compliant with applicable

laws and regulations.
 Metal (other than in PC boards): Acceptable processing includes liberation of metal items
(manually or mechanically), volume reduction for transport (shredding, baling, and so forth),
and refining by smelters or foundries (or similar) for the purpose of preparing the metal for
reuse. To maximize recycling rates, sending whole products to a smelter is not authorized
without approval from HP and demonstration that the smelter is capable of capturing all of
the following for reuse: copper, precious metals (such as gold and silver); steel and
aluminum; and, for CRT devices, lead.
 Incineration: If lead-bearing electronic components (such as circuit boards), batteries,
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics, mercury lamps, or any material classified as hazardous
waste under applicable regulations are disposed of by incineration, the incinerator must
meet 99.99% destruction removal efficiency (DRE) for all regulated hazardous
contaminants and 99.9999% DRE for dioxins.
 Other Dispositions: Any other disposition for the above materials is not authorized unless
approved in advance by HP.” (HP 2008a)
2.2.3 Information Security
“All data-containing devices such as hard drives, and recording media such as CDs, DVDs, tapes,
or other similar items must either be fully erased or destroyed by shredding, crushing, shearing,
melting, incinerating, or perforating the memory resident material.” (HP 2008a)
2.2.4 Transportation
With respect to international transportation, HP (2008a) stipulates:

 “HP products, components or materials exported across country borders must have prior
approval from the HP vendor manager,
 any required permits or government consents for transboundary shipments must be
secured before shipment, and
 hazardous or regulated materials shall not be exported from developed countries to
developing countries.”
2.2.5 Health & Safety
The HP Standards on H&S are generally based on recognized management systems such as
OHSAS 1800113 and ILO Guidelines14 on Occupational Safety and Health.
13
http://www.ohsas-18001-occupational-health-and-safety.com
14
http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/publication/wcms_110496.pdf
9
Below, a short comparison of HP Standards on H&S (in HP 2009) and the corresponding articles in
the Moroccan labour code is given.
Moroccan Regulation HP Standards
 The workplace, the machines, engines and  “Occupational safety: worker exposure to
tools have to be maintained in a way to potential safety hazards are to be controlled”
guarantee the safety of the employees (Art. by safety measures and personal protective
282, see also Art. 289) equipment. […]
--- (no regulation found)  “Emergency preparedness: emergency

situations are to be identified and assessed,
and their impact minimized by implementing
emergency plans and response procedures.
[…]”
 Each company employing more than 50  “Occupational injury and illness: procedures
employees or companies realizing labour and systems are to be in place to prevent,
which exposes their employees to risks of manage, track and report occupational injury
professional illness have to dispose of an and illness. […]”
independent medical service (Art. 304 ff.).
Additionally, each company with more than
50 employees has to create a H&S
committee (Art. 336 ff.) See also Art. 290.
 The utilization of products and substances  “Industrial hygiene: worker exposure to

recognized as likely to harm worker’s health chemical, biological and physical agents is to
or safety must not be allowed by the be identified, evaluated, and controlled. […]”
employer (Art. 287).
Hazardous substances in use have to be
labelled with a danger warning (Art. 288).
--- (no regulation found)  “Physically demanding work: worker

exposure to the hazards of physically
demanding tasks, including manual material
handling and heavy or repetitive lifting,
prolonged standing and highly repetitive or
forceful assembly tasks is to be identified,
evaluated and controlled.”
 It is prohibited to purchase or rent machines  “Machine Safeguarding: production and

presenting a danger to the workers, if there other machinery is to be evaluated for safety
are not provided with a protection device hazards.” Physical barrier has to be provided
(Art. 283, see also Art. 282 & 286). and maintained where necessary.
10
 The employer has to guarantee the  “Sanitation, food, housing: workers are to be
provision with drinking water at the provided with ready access to clean toilet
workplace and ensure salubrious housing facilities, potable water and sanitary food
and satisfying hygiene conditions for the preparation, storage, and eating facilities.
workers (Art. 281). […]”
2.2.6 Other Specifications
Among others, further requirements within the HP Standards for Hardware Recycling (HP 2008a)
are:
 Emergency plans: the vendors have to “implement and maintain an emergency response
plan to prepare for and respond to emergency situations, including fires, medical
emergencies, and uncontrolled releases of hazardous or harmful materials.”
 Insurance: each vendor has to maintain a general liability, a comprehensive liability and a
pollution liability insurance.
 Use of subvendors: “Vendors must verify and maintain documentation that any
subvendors they employ to provide recycling or disposal services for designated materials
originating from HP will and do comply with this standard, including the HP Supplier Code
of Conduct.” Vendors must conduct “audits to document conformance to HP standards at
all subvendor sites and operations, regardless of their locations, that are used for handling,
storage, or processing designated materials managed on behalf of HP.”
 Audits: “HP reserves the right to conduct annual audits and assessments of all vendor
sites and operations […]”
 Product and Materials Tracking and Accountability: “Upon request, vendors must
provide an accounting to HP of all HP products, components, and materials they have
processed […]“
 Site security: “Security controls must be in place to protect HP products, components, and
materials from the time entrusted to the vendor” This concerns also the employees, which
have to be screened for criminal convictions (unless prohibited by law) before assigning
any employee or contractor work or access to HP products or components.
11
2.3 Recycler and Refiner
An economically efficient and environmentally sound e-waste business not only relies upon the
single processing steps but on the recycling chain as a whole. Each step in this chain is interlinked
with the precedent and following step, e.g. the composition of the collected waste material
determines the design of the processing channel. A proper coordination of the whole recycling
chain and a transparent and close interaction and communication are thus crucial to achieve a
good overall efficiency (Schluep et al. 2009).
The necessary investments and technological requirements for the respective steps in the e-waste
recycling chain differ significantly. “As a consequence an international division of labor has been
established over time. Collection, dismantling and partly mechanical pre-processing takes place at
a national or regional level, as does metals recovery from less complex materials/fractions such as
ferrous, copper and aluminum. On the contrary treatment of complex materials such as circuit
boards, batteries, cell phones in refining processes or specialized battery recycling plants takes
place in a global context.” (Schluep et al. 2009)
Information about some special fractions which have to be processed can be found in chapter
3.1.8.
Objective of the treatment step Potential treatment alternatives
High collection rate (Several collection schemes possible; not considered as a

technological step)
Depollution Manual dismantling/sorting
Separation of material fractions Manual dismantling/sorting

Shredding and separation by magnetic belts, eddy currents,
magnetic inductions, vibrations, density, dielectric properties or
melting temperature
Recovery of material fractions Plastic recycler

Smelters
Integrated metal smelter
Removal of hazardous substances Incineration with off-gas control

Disposal in hazardous landfill
Recovery of hazardous substances
Table 1. Potential recycling procedures/technologies.
In this chapter, an outline of the present e-waste recycler and refiner of the fractions generated
during pre-processing on a national and international scale is given. The purpose is to dispose of
an information basis allowing the design of recycling concepts adapted to the local circumstances
and the identification of required extensions and/or improvements in the recycling chain.
12
2.3.1 National e-Waste Recycler
According to GIZ (2010), only few formal e-waste recycling activities take place. The formal
recycling sector is still in its infancy and the main fraction of WEEE is collected and treated by the
informal sector (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008). Nevertheless, some formal e-waste recycling activities
exist in Morocco. In the two years between the publication of the studies mentioned above, the
only new stakeholder in the formal e-waste recycling is Managem (see chapter 2.3.1.2). An outline
of the national stakeholders which accept entire WEEE or one or several fractions is given in Table
2.
State-of-the-art technology like optimal PWB or battery recycling are not yet available on national
level.
Hazardous materials
Ferrous metals
Dismantling
Entire WEEE
Aluminum
CRT-glass
Copper
Plastic
PWBs
Valdeme Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes*
No solution available currently

IVSEP intended intended
Al Jisr Yes Yes
Ecotechno intended intended intended intended
Managem via Al Jisr via Al Jisr Yes**
Mac//Z metal scrap*** no Yes Yes Yes
SONASID Yes
Univers acier Yes
Tube et Profil Yes
Maghreb Steel Yes
SFPZ Is investigated
* PWBs are exported
** Pilot stage, not up to international environmental standards
*** WEEE is shredded together with metal scrap (without particular pre-treatment of WEEE)
Table 2. Current Moroccan treatment options for e-waste fractions.
2.3.1.1 e-Waste Recycler
Further information about the companies described hereafter can be found in GIZ (2010).
Valdeme
The company Valdeme (VALorisation DEs MEtaux) is mainly a metal scrap recycler and
wholesaler. But in recent years, Valdeme got active in the e-waste recycling as well, principally
performing a dismantling of the appliances. The resulting fractions are supplied to national and
international recyclers and refiners. The main e-waste collection channels of the company are the
supply via some major companies (IBM, Phillips, St Microelectronics) as well as tender offers by
companies and authorities. Valdeme claims that it is difficult to get e-waste in tender offers as the
13
informal sector is allowed to compete as well. Due to their cherry-picking approach15, they readily
outcompete formal recyclers. A field visit at the facility close to Berrechid (Greater Casablanca)
revealed that e-waste makes only a small share of the whole material throughput, the appliances
being dismantled only at one workplace. GIZ (2010) reports a volume of about 10 tons of treated e-
waste per year at Valdeme, which corresponds approximately to the number of 500 PCs a year
provided in Rochat and Laissaoui (2008).
According to Mr. Baudet, its director, the company has made major efforts for environmental
issues, e.g. the implementation of a waste water treatment or the environmental impact study that
was conducted.
Figure 2. Metal scrap depot, Valdeme.
Figure 1. e-Waste dismantling workplace,

Valdeme.
Figure 3. Metal scrap at Valdeme.
15
Cherry-picking: remove the valuable parts from the appliances without treating the hazardous parts in appropriate
manner.
14
IVSEP
IVSEP (Société d'Industries Vertes et Services Propres) is a small company in Fes that intends to
start an e-waste dismantling facility, supplying the resulting material fractions to the appropriate
downstream processing. It is important to note that the company is not yet active operationally. A
trip to the terrain of the company revealed that construction works did not start so far (the
designated terrain is an open acre). Some pictures of the field visit can be found in Figure 9 -
Figure 12 (page 20).
The company intends to collect e-waste from households via a close cooperation with the informal
sector. The director of the company, Mr. Lhossini, has established contacts to the stakeholders of
the informal sector (scavengers, etc.) in order to structure the collection of e-waste from
households and small companies. The collection strategy comprises the installation of several
take-back points in and around the city of Fes, where some selected and instructed scavengers
can sell their collected appliances at a specified price.
Al Jisr
Even if the main activities of the association Al Jisr consist of the refurbishment of computers and
their reuse in schools, it can be considered an e-waste recycler, too. With its collection and
dismantling project Green Chip, Al Jisr does not only contribute to the solution of the e-waste
issue, but intends to provide a formation to unprivileged adolescents. It is backed up financially by
the Swiss NGO Drosos16 and the Moroccan company Managem, which ensures the acceptance of
complete e-waste fractions (see chapter 2.3.1.2).
Thus, Al Jisr is not competing with the further e-waste recyclers. But it has established a well
organised facility in Casablanca where a deep manual dismantling of mainly IT equipment is
carried out.
Figure 4. Dismantling at Al Jisr. Figure 5. Dismantling facility of Al Jisr.
16
http://www.drosos.org/en/
15
Ecotechno
Ecotechno is a company which focuses solely on the treatment of e-waste. Ecotechno evolved
from the national school of mineral industry (ENIM17). At ENIM, the two processes were developed
which established the basis for the involvement in the e-waste business. The first process is the
recovery of gold from the PWBs by a wet chemical leaching with an upstream shredding process.
Secondly, the plastic and silica residues from the PWB shredding and further shredded plastic are
glued to a sealing material which replaces bitumen plaster. So far, none of the processes was
applied on an industrial scale. Apart from those processes, Ecotechno intends to collect and
dismantle the appliances and supply the material fractions to the appropriate downstream
processing channels.
Apparently, Ecotechno lacks financial funding and thus the company is currently not operative.,
Moreover, efficiency (gold recovery) and compliance with environmental standards (glued plastic
residues) of the developed processes are not clear and need further clarification. According to
Schluep et al. (2009) hydrometallurgical processes as described above are usually not as effective
as a treatment in an integrated metal smelter. Concerning the residual plastic glue, it is not clear if
its exposure to weather leads to an emission to enclosed hazardous substances.
17
Ecole Nationale de l’Industrie Minérale; http://www.enim.ac.ma/
16
2.3.1.2 Refiner
For certain metal fractions generated during pre-processing national refining options exist.
Especially if metals like Fe, Al, Cu, etc. can be segregated in the dismantling, a national refining
solution is feasible and preferable. Table 3 gives an outline of the main metal smelters, whereas
other existing small and medium scale facilities are not mentioned in the table.
As opposed to this, Morocco does not offer a suitable and established facility to treat complex
fraction containing metals, e.g. PWBs, ICs, processors, connectors and small electronic devices
(mobile phones, mp3-players etc.).
Company Treated fractions
SONASID18 Ferrous metals
Univers acier Ferrous metals
Mafoder19 Ferrous metals
Tube et Profil Ferrous metals
Maghreb Steel20 Ferrous metals
Mac//Z (see below) Copper, brass (wholesaler for further metals)
SFPZ21 Lead glass (lead smelter)
Managem22 (Guemassa Some special and precious metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Co, Au etc.), PWBs in pilot
hydrometallurgical complex) treatment (see below)
Table 3. National refiner, adapted from Rochat and Laissaoui (2008).
Managem
As described in GIZ (2010), Managem is a subsidiary of the multinational group ONA and its
principal divisions are ore mining and metal refining. Four years ago, Managem became also
active in the field of e-waste, where it focuses on the refining of several metals contained in the
PWBs. Due to their relatively high concentration of precious metals and copper, the PWBs allow
Managem to upgrade its mining ores.
For this purpose, a pilot plant with an open electric arc furnace was installed at the plant in
Guemassa, close to Marrakesh. The product of this furnace is a blister consisting of the PWB
metals (see Figure 6). The plant’s capacity is about 100 t of PWB per month. This plant is not
18
www.sonasid.ma
19
www.mafoder.com
20
www.maghrebsteel.ma
21
Société des Fonderies de Plomb de Zellidja, www.sfpz.ma
22
www.managem-ona.com
17
equipped with an off-gas control system. But according to Managem this isn’t required due to the
high processing temperatures (approx. 1’600 °C) which prevent the generation of dioxins.
In order to supply the future final facility with a

reported capacity of 10’000 t of PWB per year
(corresponding to 200’000 t of WEEE per year),
the company intends to gather e-waste at a
national and international level. For this reason
Managem is also involved as a primary sponsor of
the Green Chip project in Casablanca, that was
initiated by the association Al Jisr (see chapter
2.3.1.1). The project consists in the collection,
dismantling and recovery of e-waste from
companies and authorities. While Al Jisr manages
the collection and the manual dismantling, all the
resulting material fractions are purchased by
Managem for a price of 1’800 MAD23 per ton.
Managem assumes responsibility for the
downstream processing solution of each fraction.
At present, the definite downstream processing
destinations of the different e-waste fractions are
not known. According to Managem several
Figure 6. Blister from the PWB pilot plant.
fractions (e.g. batteries, capacitors, plastic, etc.)
are kept in stock until an appropriate treatment or disposal option is available.
Mac//Z
Mac//Z is located in Skhirat between Casablanca and Rabat. Its main activities are the shredding
and the separation of metal scrap and the fabrication of copper and brass billets and further
products. Those activities include the stripping of Al and Cu cables. For other metals like iron,
aluminum, etc., Mac//Z acts as an intermediary. Some of those metals are exported. Further
information about the company can be found in GIZ (2010).
The company is not involved in the recycling of e-waste, but during a field visit a non-negligible
share of electric and electronic appliances was seen in the input to its automatic shredding
processes. Additionally, several workers were stripping Al and Cu cables. No specific measures
seem to be taken to prevent hazardous contamination which is likely to happen during the
shredding of the e-waste enclosed in the metal scrap.
1‘800 MAD ≈ 160 €, exchange rate from 4.11.2010

23
18
Figure 7. e-Waste in the metal scrap bulk Figure 8. Hoffmann shredder at Mac//Z.
(Mac//Z).
2.3.1.3 Informal Recycler
In the informal sector several levels of stakeholders have to be distinguished.

At the bottom of the hierarchical pyramid we find the scavengers that work mostly on their own and
collect different materials wherever they can find them (e.g. landfills, households, etc.). As both
GIZ (2010) and Rochat & Laissaoui (2008) report, they do commonly not focus on the collection or
dismantling of e-waste due to a weak market interest/demand. Thus, compared to developing
countries like e.g. India, Ghana or Nigeria, few scavengers are active in the field of e-waste in
Morocco.
While their main activities are directed to other materials, wholesalers and semi-wholesalers do
perform e-waste collection and dismantling to a certain extent. In particular their participation in
tender offers by companies and authorities is reported (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008). As Valdeme
claims, the informal stakeholders usually outcompete the formal participants in those tender offers.
The reports about the “recycling” practices by the informal stakeholders would confirm this
declaration; their practices mainly consist in the extraction of the valuable parts like metals, while
parts which cannot be commercialized or parts containing hazardous substances are abandoned
or relinquished to the municipal waste collection (cherry-picking). Some reports about open cable
burning exist as well (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008). According to this study, such informal dismantling
in Casablanca was gradually replaced by activities in Sidi Bennour, a small town located 160 km
southwest of Casablanca.
In November 2010 a visit to some stakeholders (scavengers and a small intermediary) of the
informal sector in Fes was organized by Mr. Lhossini (IVSEP, see above). Even if the main volume
of the met scavengers consisted of other materials than e-waste, many scavenged small
appliances that were left behind could be seen (e.g. mobile phones, light bulbs, PWBs, CRT coils,
chargers). Cable burning was detected as well. Some pictures of this field trip are provided below.
19
Figure 9. e-Waste take-back point (small Figure 10. Cable burning, informal sector, Fes.
intermediary), Fes.
Figure 11. Push cart of a scavenger, Fes. Figure 12. Burning of lighting equipment,
informal sector, Fes.
The studies of GIZ (2010) and Rochat & Laissaoui (2008) provide more details about the informal
sector.
20
2.3.2 International Recycler and Refiner
From an environmental and in most cases also economic perspective, the optimal downstream
processing for fractions with complex or hazardous composition like PWBs, ICs, connectors,
CRTs, mercury lamps, batteries etc. are specialized facilities worldwide. Hereafter, a few options
for those fractions are presented.
GRIAG Glasrecycling AG
GRIAG24 was founded in 1997 and is specialized in the treatment of CRT glass. It is located close
to Berlin, Germany. Since 2007 GRIAG is a subsidiary of Stena Metal Holding GmbH25, a
worldwide scrap trading group.
The company accepts whole cathode ray tubes (without casing), crashed cathode ray tubes as
well as separated panel and funnel glass. The price for the treatment of the glass depends on the
condition of the supplied glass. The treatment consists in the removal of other materials from the
glass, the separation of the funnel and the panel glass and a purification of the respective glass.
The conditioned glass is supplied to CRT manufacturer in Asia, according to provided information.
MBA Polymers
MBA Polymers26 was founded in 2004 and disposes of three plants located in Austria, China
(Guangzhou) and the United States of America. The company is specialized in the recycling of
plastics, performing the removal of foreign material, the separation of the plastics and the recovery
of ABS, HIPS and PP polymers. In doing so, the facilities are mainly fed by plastics from cars and
EEE.
MBA Polymers is one of the few treatment options capable of separating plastics containing
hazardous flame retardants from non-problematic plastic fractions.
Recilec
The company Recilec27, that is located in Sevilla (Spain), offers an integral e-waste management
from collection to dismantling and supply to end-processors. But as the company also accepts
material fractions originating from an upstream dismantling process, it could be an interesting
downstream processing option for e-waste dismantlers in Morocco, also due to its proximity to
Morocco. Among others, Recilec would accept the following e-waste fractions:
 Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamps (CCFL). They contain mercury and derive from flat
screens.
24
www.griag.de
25
www.stenametall.com
26
www.mbapolymers.com
27
www.recilec.com
21
 Cathode ray tubes (CRT); whereas the treatment costs seem to be significantly higher than
those of GRIAG (see Table 7).
2.3.2.1 Integrated Metal Smelters
The recovery rate of precious and base metals contained in fractions PWBs, batteries, connectors,
etc. can be significantly enhanced in integrated smelters abroad compared to a national solution in
copper smelters or other existing plants. There is not a multitude of integrated metal smelters
worldwide. In the table below, some of the smelters are listed.
In general, the smelters charge their services according to a complex payment system, which
bases on the following scheme:
+ % of material value
- Variable charges
- Fix charges
= Offered price
whereas the variable charges include a percental deduction of the metals, a charge per kg of the
recovered metals, and the fix charges include a treatment charge, weighing & sampling charge
and possibly a shredding charge.
Regarding PWBs, most integrated metal smelter accept all different types, however, low grade
PWBs usually have to be upgraded first (removal of Al and Fe parts, cooling devices, transformer,
etc.). As the aluminum cannot be recovered in the integrated metal smelters, it is recommended to
remove Al-parts from the boards (e.g. heatsinks).
In particular the lot size of the shipment is relevant for the acceptance of the shipment. The
minimal lot sizes differ from smelter to smelter and depend primarily on the quality of the material
(the grade of the boards).
22
Company Country Description

Umicore Belgium Umicore is a material technology corporation, whose activities
preciousmetals.umicore.com focus on 4 business fields: advanced materials, precious metal
products and catalysts, precious metals services and zinc
batteryrecycling.umicore.com
specialities.
Accepts: PWBs; additionally, Umicore Battery Recycling treats
lithium and NiMH batteries (no Ni-Cd batteries).
Boliden Sweden Boliden is a leading European metals company. The main
www.boliden.se metals are zinc and copper. The operations are conducted in
two Business Areas: Mines and Smelters
Accepts: PWBs
Aurubis Germany Aurubis is the largest copper producer in Europe and the world
www.aurubis.com leader in copper recycling. Aurubis produces some 1.1 million
tonnes of copper cathodes each year and from them a variety of
(prior: Norddeutsche
copper products.
Affinerie)
Accepts: PWBs
Xstrata Recycling Canada / Xstrata’s businesses maintain an important position in seven
http://www.xstrata.com USA major international commodity markets: copper, coking coal,
thermal coal, ferrochrome, nickel, vanadium and zinc, with a
www.norandarecycling.com
growing platinum group metals business, additional exposures
(prior: Noranda)
to gold, cobalt, lead and silver, recycling facilities.
Accepts: PWBs
Table 4. List of integrated precious metal smelter, not exhaustive (CNPML & Empa n.d.).
23
2.4 Costs
The purpose of the present chapter is to give a view of the current costs which affect the e-waste
management, in particular the costs considered in the model. The presentation of all gathered data
would be too extensive, hence only the most crucial numbers are reproduced. In appendix 7.3
more detailed numbers can be found.
Most of the provided numbers in this report describe formal activities like transport companies,
downstream processing, labour costs etc. A more thorough compilation of current prices in the
informal sector in Morocco can be found in GIZ (2010). The gathered data in the referenced report
concern sales and purchase prices of e-waste and its fractions between informal stakeholders, e.g.
between scavengers, intermediaries and wholesalers. For the design of the collection concept with
the informal sector, this information gives a good idea about the informal cost structures which
formal e-waste businesses have to compete with.
The exchange rate from Euros to Moroccan Dirhams (MAD) is 1 € ≈ 11,2 MAD (4.11.2010).
2.4.1 Labour Costs
Because of the labour intensity of a manual dismantling facility, the wages paid to the workers
account for an important share of the costs.
The minimum wage in Morocco is 10,64 MAD per hour. If the non-wage labour costs are included,
the monthly minimum wage adds up to approximately 2’500 MAD28. Based on experiences of
Empa in other countries, the wage for a common worker in a model facility (dismantling,
refurbishing, etc.) is assumed to be 3’000 MAD per month, about 20% higher than the minimum
wage.
Further wages which were used in the model are given below29:
 Secretary 3’500 MAD/month
 Driver 3’500 MAD/month
 Administration assistant 6’000 MAD/month
 Manager 15’000 MAD/month
2.4.2 Rental Costs
Without knowing for certain where the dismantling facility is located, it is difficult to determine the
rental costs as they can vary according to the location. Several purchase and rental prices can be
found in the appendix. For the model, a price of 9,38 MAD per m2 and month has been calculated
28
Information provided via mail by Al Jisr
29
Those wages rely on indications from Valdeme
24
based on a rental price for a storage depot in an industrial zone Tit Mellil/Casablanca30. The
reason for the selection of this price was its average value compared to the other data which were
gathered.
2.4.3 Commodity Prices (incl. PWB and battery prices)
Via the commercialization of the fractions directed to the downstream processing, in particular of
PWBs and metals, the commodity prices significantly affect the revenue of e-waste businesses.
These prices are set on an international level, so the business is strongly dependent on those
global markets and thus is very sensitive to this factor. A strong fluctuation of the commodity prices
could be observed during recent years, what demonstrates the sensitive reaction on this factor of a
business like the one delineated in this study. Since the striking decline of the commodity prices in
2008, most of them have reached similar or even higher levels than before the global economic
crisis.
The commodity prices which were applied in the model are the average prices of 201031 (reference
scenario, see chapter 3.2.1). In the table below the metal prices which are relevant for e-waste are
presented.
Table 5. Average commodity prices for 2010.

Au Ag Pd Cu Al Fe32
USD/oz USD/oz USD/oz USD/t USD/t USD/t
Ø 2010 1'199.15 18.80 493.18 7'300.00 2'150.00 480.00
Obviously, the sale of the base metals (Cu, Al, Fe) does not bring in 100% of the prices presented
in the table, but solely a certain percentage of them. Based on indications from Mac//Z and a Swiss
recycler, the following percental price reductions were used in the model:
 Copper LME33-price minus 20%
 Aluminum LME-price minus 20%
 Scrap iron LME-price34 minus 50%
A highly relevant fraction for the revenue are the PWBs. Among others, their commodity price is
determined by the prices of Au, Ag, Pd and Cu. The price calculation used in this study is based on
30
Information provided via mail by ADS Maroc
31
Average commodity prices for the period from January 1st 2010 to November 8th 2010
32
Prices for steel billets
33
London Metal Exchange; www.lme.com
34
LME-price for steel billets
25
the business model used by Umicore Precious Metals35, Belgium. Hereafter, the PWB prices for
the respective minimum lot sizes based on the average metal prices of 201036 are given:
 PWB high grade (Au content of 200 - 300 ppm) +/- 9’000 €/t (lot size of 5 tons)
 PWB medium grade (Au content of 100-200 ppm) +/- 5’500 €/t (lot size of 7 tons)
 PWB low grade (Au content of 50-100 ppm) +/- 2’500 €/t (lot size of 10 tons)
Those prices for PWB include all charges by Umicore, but do not comprise the transportation
costs.
The prices for batteries which Umicore Battery Recycling offers depend on the current commodity
prices for cobalt (in case of Li-ion batteries) and nickel (NiMH batteries)37. According to Umicore,
the average share of those two types of laptop batteries is approximately 87,5% Li-Ion and 12,5%
NiMH batteries.
2.4.4 Transportation Costs
Many different kinds of transportation are involved in e-waste management, in particular if it is

interlinked to the global markets. First, the appliances must be collected to a facility, then the
respective fractions are distributed to national and international downstream processing. In this
particular case, transportation by lorry, by train and by ship was considered.
The table below gives an idea about the most important costs which were taken into account in the
model.
Table 6. Transportation costs (1 € ≈ 11,2 MAD; 4.11.2010).

Type Details Costs Source
Lorry, 8t Urban collection Casablanca with driver and 4 2'700 MAD/day Al Jisr
workers, incl. Taxes
Lorry 1 Container from Skhirat to Casablanca 2'000 MAD Mac//Z
Lorry Regional transport, Morocco 0.5 MAD/(t*km) Mac//Z
Ship 6m-container; Casablanca to Belgium 180 - 200 € Mac//Z
Ship 6m-container; Casablanca to Hamburg 250 € Mac//Z
Ship 6m-container; Casablanca to China 680 € Mac//Z
Ship 6m-container; Casablanca to Spain 120 € Mac//Z
Train/Lorry 6m-container; Hamburg to Berlin 450 € Zippel
35
www.preciousmetals.umicore.com
36
37
The prices for batteries offered by Umicore Batteries (www.batteryrecycling.umicore.com) are confidential.
26
Lorry 100 km in Spain ~500 € Mac//Z
With regard to the transport types, for the transport by land significantly higher transport costs must
be expected than for the transport by sea. Furthermore it was found in the model results that the
share of the transport costs per ton of the total downstream processing costs per ton is generally
rather small.
2.4.5 End-processing costs
Depending on the generated volume of the respective fractions, the end-processing can result in a
non-negligible expenditure. In the subsequent table, some of the relevant end-processing data are
compiled.
Table 7. End-processing costs for different fractions.

Fraction Costs Source
Complete cathode ray tube, undestroyed 60 €/t GRIAG
CRT glass, crushed, uncleaned 75 €/t GRIAG
CRT monitor, without casing 250 €/t Recilec
CCFL (Hg-Lamps from flat screens) 880 €/t Recilec
Plastic, with and without flame retardants 0 €/t* MBA
Battery (Li-Ion & NiMH) See commodity prices (chapter 2.4.3)
Printed wiring circuit See commodity prices (chapter 2.4.3)
* may be cost or revenue, sample lot has to be shipped to MBA China in order to set the price
27
3 Model Development
3.1 Outline of Relevant Elements
This chapter provides an outline of the stages that should be covered by a sound e-waste
management system. Furthermore, in this chapter it is defined which stages comprise which
specific processes. For several processes, a short description/definition can also be found in the
glossary at the end of this report.
R e c o ve r
C onsum e C o lle ct D is p o s e
Function Mate rial & En ergy
Corporate
B2B-logistics Sorter & manual
consumer
pre-processor Landfill
Refurbisher
Informal
sector Mechanical
Pre-processor Hazardous
waste landfill
Private Collection
consumer sites
Refiner
Repairer Incinerator (no
energy recov.)
Retailer
MATERIAL & ENERGY
CONSUMER COLLECTION FUNCTION RECOVERY RECOVERY
New resources
Figure 13. e-Waste process chain.
3.1.1 Administration
Administration comprises multiple activities in order to organize the employees and the existing
resources efficiently so as to achieve the objectives of a sound e-waste recycling. Instead of
describing all those activities separately, the most important are listed below:
 Coordination and strategy of in-house operations (collection, dismantling, transportation)
 Human resource management
 Budgeting and accounting
 Organization of public relations (see 3.1.2)
 Organization of the monitoring
28
3.1.2 Public Relations
The awareness of the social and environmental implications and opportunities of e-waste among
consumer has a strong impact on the success of e-waste collection, in particular in households.
This awareness is generally quite low in Morocco and poses a major obstacle especially for the
collection of appliances from households.
One could argue that a strategy to overcome this challenge is to significantly raise the budget for
public relations. As experiences in other countries demonstrate, an adequate public relations (PR)
campaign aiming at a stimulation of the awareness among consumer can account for a significant
percentage of the overall budget of e-waste businesses38. But contrariwise the present project
doesn’t dispose of the dimension and potential to foster the awareness of a whole society. Hence,
it is certainly necessary to promote the business and sensitize the consumer to the solution
offered. But there’s no point in spending too much resources given the uncertainties of the actual
effect on the return of WEEE.
The most crucial points which a PR campaign for WEEE collection should focus on are:
 dissemination of appropriate information among consumers,
 coherence and simplicity of information,
 easy access to information for consumers and
 credibility and transparency of the e-waste businesses.
The expenditures related to a PR campaign can vary a lot according to size, design, duration, etc.
of it. Hence, its costs are included in the model under further costs (see chapter 3.2.1).
The last point listed above indicates that instead of wasting too much funds for PR, the businesses
should rather focus his efforts on a collection design which facilitates easy access, good service
and transparent and plain information to consumers. In other words: the collection success of a
business is strongly dependent on a good coordination of the PR strategy and the collection setup
(chapter 3.1.4).
3.1.3 Financing schemes
If the intrinsic value of the obsolete appliances is not covering the complete expenditures for the
WEEE management, additional sources for revenues have to be accessed. This can happen by
different financial schemes, which are briefly described below.
Fee on disposal At the collection site, a fee is paid by the final user at the moment of
return of his obsolete appliance.
Advanced recycling At the moment of purchase, the consumer pays a fee on his new
38
Battery recycling Switzerland, 2008: 14% of total system costs (INOBAT 2009)
29
fee (ARF) appliance which funds the WEEE management of obsolete appliances.
Deposit – refund Similar to the ARF-scheme, but the initial fee paid by the consumer is
not only financing the WEEE management, but includes a deposit which
is refunded at the return of the obsolete product (incentive for return).
Fee on import For each appliance imported, the importer pays a specific amount (fee)
into a recycling-pool, which is managed by the manufacturer (or an
association, if several manufacturer cooperate).
General Taxes The funds required for WEEE management are levied by general taxes.
3.1.4 Collection
In the present report, collection covers collection and take-back from the final user, interim storage
and transportation to the recycler and/or dismantler. For the storage of appliances in the collection
channel the same standards apply as for the storage of appliances in the dismantling or recycling
facilities (see chapter 2.2).
The collection of the obsolete appliances is a crucial part of an e-waste business. On the one hand
the whole treatment chain depends on the supply by this first stage. And on the other hand an
efficient and successful collection is probably the stage which is the most challenging to design
and plan. Its success depends strongly on the active participation of consumers, in other words of
households, companies and administrations. The basis for an efficient collection scheme is its
accessibility and efficiency for consumers and a coherent and adequate dissemination of
information to the consumer (see chapter 3.1.2). Usually, the collection causes a relevant share of
the costs in an e-waste business.
3.1.4.1 Precondition
In order to be able to adapt the collection to local conditions, the relevant information gathered in
the study of GIZ (2010) is summarized below.
e-Waste stock and flow estimates (2008)

Table 8 and Table 9 show the e-waste stock and flow in 2008 for Morocco estimated by GIZ
(2010), including a comparison to the estimations for 2008 and 2012 from Rochat and Laissaoui
(2008). The predominance of the households in matters of weight of the total equipment stock
(89%) and flow (81%) in 2008 is apparent (for PCs, TVs, mobile phones and audio & video
devices). This imposes the importance of giving a general priority to the households for a business
which takes all the mentioned appliances into account. Going further into detail, it can be revealed
that the share of each appliance differ significantly from the total. In respect of PCs, the non-
household consumers (public and private sector) will generate approximately 50% of obsolete PCs
in 2008. But in the case of TVs, mobile phones and audio & video devices nearly all the appliances
are found in households. For these latter appliances, the non-household sector can be neglected.
30
The obsolete PCs arisen in the public and private sector are especially attractive for e-waste
collection, because the stock of PCs in a company is usually substituted as a whole. This reduces
significantly the collection expenditures.
Table 8. Estimated e-Waste stock in Morocco, 2008 & 2012 (in tons).
Year, source 2008, GIZ 2008, Empa 2012, Empa
Application Households Non-Household Total Total1 Total1
PCs (ton) 28'818 30'049 58'867 60'048 75'322
PCs (ton) 49.0% 51.0% 100.0%
TVs (ton) 152'732 1'255 153'987 152'540 158'581
TVs (ton) 99.2% 0.8% 100.0%
Mobile phones (ton) 2'875 0 2'875 3'543 4'256
Mobile phones (ton)2 100.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Video & Audio (ton) 91'009 919 91'928
Video & Audio (ton)3 99.0% 1.0% 100.0%
Total (ton) 275'434 32'223 307'657 216'1314 238'1594
Total (ton) 89.5% 10.5% 100.0%
Source: Empa by (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008)
1
2
Distribution based on Rochat and Laissaoui (2008)
Distribution according to TVs, ≈ Matériel Grand Public horc TV
3
4
Video & Audio volumes not included
Table 9. Estimated e-Waste flow in Morocco, 2008 & 2012 (in tons/year).
Year, source 2008, GIZ 2008, Empa 2012, Empa
Appliance Households Non-Household Total Total1 Total1
PCs (ton) 7'392 7'512 14'904 13'810 15'064
PCs (%) 49.6% 50.4% 100.0%
TVs (ton) 15'273 125 15'398 15'254 15'858
TVs (%) 99.2% 0.8% 100.0%
Mobile phones (ton) 575 0 575 1'772 2‘128
Mobile phones (%)2 100.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Video & Audio (ton) 10'673 108 10'781
Video & Audio (%)3 99.0% 1.0% 100.0%
Total (ton) 33'913 7'745 41'658 30'8364 31'7734
Total (%) 81.4% 18.6% 100.0%
1
source: Empa by Rochat and Laissaoui (2008)
2
Distribution based on Rochat and Laissaoui (2008)
Distribution according to TVs, ≈ Matériel Grand Public horc TV
3
4
Video & Audio volumes not included
The numbers provided by the two studies indicate practically the same range of e-waste volumes
for 2008. Only the estimated volumes of mobile phones differ by a factor of three.
3.1.4.2 Potential Collection Channels
Depending on the accessibility and density of the appliances in the different sectors, various
channels have to be established in order to collect them efficiently. In particular, households on the
one hand and the private and public sector on the other hand must be distinguished.
31
Due to the less challenging accessibility of the PCs in the public and private sector (companies
and authorities) and the fact that IT is the business segment of HP, it is recommended that in a first
phase a collection channel focuses on those PCs (B2B-channel39). In the beginning, this should
ensure a basic input into the recycling facility and allow for a gradual build-up of the further
channels to cover the obsolete appliances generated in the households. Potential collection
channels for this purpose are:
 Direct collection of the appliances at the companies, respectively authorities by:
o participating in their calls for tenders. As long as the companies/authorities do not
impose some minimum conditions for treatment, a bidder of the formal sector runs a
high risk of losing the calls for tenders given its higher treatments costs compared to
a bidder of the informal sector (see also Valdeme, chapter 2.3.1.1).
o negotiating directly with the companies/authorities in order to get the appliances
circumventing a call for tenders. Depending on the appliance and the
companies/authorities, a price can be fixed. As a return service, the recycler can
offer an environmentally sound treatment of the appliances and possibly even a
certificate for this service. An existing example for this kind of collection is the Green
Chip project of Al Jisr40, see chapter 2.3.1.1.
 Indirect collection of the appliances via the approximate 20 retailers supplying the “major
account segment”41. This alternative could become very effective to collect the appliances
of major consumers. The basis for the success of this alternative is a contract between the
retailers and the major consumers which assign an exclusive take-back right for the old
appliances to the retailers. With its strong PC market share of 35% in Morocco (Rochat &
Laissaoui 2008), HP can possibly bring the retailers to conclude such kind of contracts with
their consumers.
At the same time the presented numbers indicate that in the medium and long term a recycling
facility treating not exclusively IT equipment cannot be run depending primarily on a simple B2B
collection model. From the distribution of the appliances between households, the private and the
public sector, it can be deduced that the main collection channels must be adjusted to get access
to the appliances in the households, whose collection requires a much higher effort than in the
other sectors. The following collection channels exist to collect those appliances (C2B):
 Return of the obsolete products to the selling points by consumers (supermarkets,
specialized shops, etc.).
 Integration of and cooperation with the informal sector (scavengers) by using its experience
and existing collection channels and providing formal labour opportunities.
39
In a so-called Business-to-Business (B2B) model the appliances are collected directly in the companies.
40
http://www.aljisr.ma/article.php3?id_article=187
41
Major account segment: “primarily made up of government agencies and public bodies (Ministries and Offices), as well
as major private actors (banks, insurance companies, industrial companies, multinationals)” (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008)
32
 Municipal or private collection points for WEEE (possibly together with other waste
streams).
 Periodic mobile collection with direct pick-up from the households (door-to-door collection).
Reverse Logistics42
Reverse logistics refers to a collection system that capitalizes the existing distribution channels of
new products in order to gather obsolete products along those channels, but in the opposite
direction. The idea of such a collection design is reducing the transportation effort by reducing the
number of pick-up points and therefore capitalizing the transportation which is performed anyway.
The functioning of an exemplary design of reverse logistics is given in Figure 14.
PRODUCER/ Prod./Imp. A Prod./Imp. B

IMPORTER
WHOLESALER/
INTERMEDIARY A A/B B
RETAILER
Pick up by contracted Pick up by contracted

transport companies, transport companies,
Capitalization of
existing distribution alternative A: alternative B:
channels From retailer From producer/importer
Figure 14. Reverse logistics - capitalization of distribution channels.
In this figure, the red lines represent the stages where existing distribution channels are capitalized
in the opposite direction. In doing so, the pick-up points are reduced by accumulating the obsolete
appliances along those channels towards the wholesaler, respectively manufacturer/importer.
42
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_logistics
33
3.1.5 Transportation
The transportation of e-waste includes various stages beginning with collection of the appliances
and ending with the transportation within and out of the recycling and refining chain (moving
processed parts or material between different facilities, disposal, export, etc.). Usually, the
transportation represents a relevant cost share43, whose actual amount strongly depends on
factors like the geographic coverage of collection, the collection and logistics design and the legal
guidelines (classification as hazardous waste). For legal requirements or requirements by HP with
regard to transportation, see chapters 2.1.2 and 2.2.4.
3.1.5.1 National
National transportation of e-waste respectively its components and materials will mainly be
performed by truck, but as Morocco disposes of one of the most modern railway systems,
transportation by train should be considered, too. See also chapter 3.1.4.2 (reverse logistics).
3.1.5.2 International (Export)
Within the realms of possibility, an objective of the project is to capitalize national recycling and
refining options. In case of the processing of base metals or other material in metal smelters or
cement production, this is definitively possible and often economically and environmentally
advantageous.
The export of components or materials to state-of-the-art refining plants generally involves
transportation by ship (see chapter 0) to Europe, North America or Asia, which entails more
complicated transportation procedures like shipment completion and customs clearance, that raise
the transportation costs. The main international ports Casablanca, Mohammédia and Jorf Lasfar
are located around Casablanca (approx. 72% of the maritime trade44), but since 2006/07 an
important port with a container terminal is in operation in Tangier.
It has to be considered that Morocco is a signatory state of the Basel Convention (see chapter
2.1.4). For this reason, the transboundary movement of hazardous waste requires a notification.
3.1.6 Sorting, Handling and Storage
This chapter refers to the general manipulation of the appliances in any treatment facility. For
reasons of control, efficiency and security, it is essential to take account of :
 an organized and logistically reasonable handling,
43
Switzerland, EU WEEE categories 3 & 4: 21% of total expenditures (Swico 2009)
44
Source: Portail national du Maroc,
http://www.maroc.ma/PortailInst/An/MenuGauche/Invest+in+Morocco/Infrastructure/Road+infrastructure+ports+industrial
+zones.htm, accessed on May 25th, 2010
34
 a careful documentation of the appliance and material stocks and flows,

 the protection of the workers and
 a safe and proper handling and storage of the appliances and their respective components
(prevent release of hazardous substances).
Upon arrival at the dismantling facility, as a first step the appliances pass through a sorting step
(not definitive, to be adapted):
TVs Desktop PCs Notebooks Printers Mobile phones
Flat screens CRT screens Desktops Peripherals Notebooks Printers Mobile phones
Cables &
Power supplies
Packaging
Figure 15. Exemplary sorting tree for the main appliances considered in the study.
Afterwards, if no immediate transfer to the treatment is possible, the classified appliances are
stored properly again.
These stages are apt for a cooperation with scavengers (informal sector).
3.1.7 Manual Dismantling
The main goal of the manual dismantling (which is part of the pre-processing) is to prepare the
obsolete appliances for the downstream processing by way of breaking them down into their
respective fractions. The suitable dismantling depth is highly dependent on the further treatment
those fractions pass through.
The objectives of the dismantling are the following:
 separation and sorting of different materials and components, preparing them for further
treatment,
 removal of contaminated components (depollution),
 concentration of particularly valuable components by separating them (optimize material
revenue),
 generation of employment and inclusion of the informal sector.
35
Particularly in developing countries, the design of the manual dismantling is essential, given that
labour costs are rather low compared to industrialized countries. The low wages allow for a
relatively deep manual dismantling which results in a high recovery rate of the treated material
maximizing revenue. As mentioned above, this stage is apt for a cooperation with scavengers
(informal sector).
3.1.8 End-processing
After the dismantling stage, the separated fractions don’t pass through any further major treatment
in the dismantling facility. An exception is an eventual shredding step of certain fractions (plastics,
metals, etc.) in order to comply with acceptance requirements of their purchaser and facilitate their
transportation.
The end-processing is realized in different industries which handle the materials and components
separated during the dismantling process. Some of the fractions which have to be supplied to end-
processors are delineated below. Table 11 in chapter 3.2.1.1 gives an outline of the selected
destinations for the materials and components in the model calculations.
Printed Wiring Boards

PWBs consist of a complex mix of metals and organic compounds. A typical composition of a PWB
from a PC is 7% Fe, 5% Al, 20% Cu, 1.5% Pb, 1% Ni, 3% Sn and 25% organic compounds.
Additionally, 250 ppm45 Au, 1000 ppm Ag and 100 ppm Pd and traces of As, Sb, Ba, Br and Bi can
be found (Hageluken 2006). The PWB composition is on the one hand an opportunity due to the
high value of the inclosed precious metals, but on the other hand it poses a risk due to the
occurrence of hazardous substances. Given this material complexity, a major challenge of the
PWB treatment is to achieve an efficient recovery of the various metals without releasing
hazardous substances.
On the global markets, the end-processing of PWBs is usually performed in state-of-the-art
refineries which combine hydro- and pyrometallurgical operations (see Table 4). In those state-of-
the-art facilities a high recovery rate for a wide range of metals is possible.
Nevertheless, methods like wet chemical leaching of metals are still carried out in many countries,
predominantly in the informal sector. Those processes do not only have adverse environmental
impacts and pose a threat to human health, but are also inefficient in terms of metal recovery. A
study conducted in India concluded that the metal loss in those processes carried out in the
informal sector is significant compared to the refining in an integrated metal smelter (Keller 2006).
Batteries
Many types of batteries are found in e-waste and their composition is diverse. Some types of them
contain hazardous substances which must be disposed of appropriately.
45
ppm – parts per million
36
In the appliance scope considered in this study, the main volume of obsolete batteries is found in
laptops. Thereof, roughly 10 – 15% are NiMH batteries and 85 – 90% are Li-Ion batteries (UBR
2010). Furthermore, small buffer batteries with different shapes (e.g. button cells) can be found on
PWBs (Gabriel 2000). Depending on the existing alternatives, it may be reasonable not to remove
those small batteries from the PWBs and supply them to an integrated metal smelter which treats
them according to the required standards (see chapter 2.3.2.1).
Schluep et al. (2009) recommends to send the batteries of electrical and electronic equipment to
dedicated plants for the recovery of cobalt, nickel and copper. In Europe, more than 40 specialized
battery recycling companies exist (EBPA 2010).
According to Valdeme, the batteries resulting from their e-waste dismantling are supplied to a
company in France. No further information on the plant was provided.
In the model, the laptop batteries are assumed to be treated at Umicore Battery Recycling in
Hoboken, Belgium. Among other materials, Umicore is specialized in the recovery of some metals
in NiMH and Li-Ion batteries.
Plastics
Various types of plastic exist, of which ABS, polystyrene (PS) and polypropylene (PP) are usually
used in computer manufacturing. In addition, many other types are used depending on their
characteristics, as well as plastic compounds.
Generally, it is difficult to avoid a deterioration of quality in plastics recycling (downcycling).
However, recent progress in process technology allows the recovery of some kinds of plastics (see
chapter 0). A crucial step to reduce this deterioration is the appropriate separation of the various
plastic types, which requires either state-of-the-art technology or an extensive know-how of the
plastics.
Concerning the plastics used in electronic equipment, a major problem are the halogenated flame
retardants (FR) found in various plastics and the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in wire insulation. If those
kinds of plastic are burnt, toxic dioxins and furans is generated. Therefore, this fraction requires a
special treatment.
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs)

CRT monitors from computers and TVs account for a large share of the e-waste volume in the EU
categories 3 & 4. They represent an environmental hazard due to their fluorescent phosphor layers
which contain several toxic metals (e.g. cadmium) and due to the high lead oxide concentration in
the cone glass of the tube. Among the potential controlled disposal options, the following are
mentioned in Schluep et al. (2009):
 “The secondary production of new CRT glass (screen to screen; (lead containing) cone to
cone glass; to a lesser extent for mixed glass to cone glass),
 Smelter options (in particular mixed glass to Cu/Pb smelters),
37
 Other industry (e.g. pane glass to ceramic industry as feldspar replacement; funnel glass to
cement industry as coarse gravel replacement; mixed glass to cement industry as fine
gravel bricks or to salt mine as filler).”
3.1.9 Controlled Incineration and Disposal
While the bulk of e-waste fractions can be recycled, certain fractions are not suitable for recycling
and therefore have to be disposed of. The most common solution for those fractions is the
controlled incineration or/and the disposal in hazardous waste landfills. Non-hazardous waste
fractions that are not recycled, may be disposed of in a controlled municipal waste landfill.
Apart from municipal waste landfills, no fully developed solution for the incineration or the disposal
of hazardous waste exists in Morocco. This forces a responsible e-waste business either to stock
or to export those e-waste fractions to adequate plants abroad. Nonetheless, progresses of
emerging national initiatives should be kept track of, e.g. the CNEDS46 hazardous waste plant.
3.1.10 Monitoring
Even though it is readily ignored, the monitoring of the recycling and the control of accounting
represent the basis for the credibility of a recycling business. Its main functions are:
 Ensure of the compliance with (HP) requirements
 Ensure of the legal compliance
 Ensure fair/equal market conditions (level playing field)
 Control the mass flow within and between the businesses (collected volume, treated
volume, etc.)
 Collect and manage relevant data
 Establish the basis for and give credibility to the certification of the facilities
3.1.11 Refurbishment
Mainly three reasons exists to refurbish obsolete appliances. Firstly, it’s an business decision due
to the revenue which possibly can be generated. Furthermore can be an environmental advantage
to extend the lifetime of the devices and thereby reducing the volumes of generated e-waste. And
last but not least the refurbishment provides also a social benefit by generating jobs and procuring
low-budget or even free appliances to the costumers.
According to StEP47, “refurbishment comprises any action necessary to restore a unit up to a
defined condition in function and form that may be inferior to a new unit. The output product meets
46
Centre National d’Elimination de Déchets Spéciaux; http://www.minenv.gov.ma/10_projets/cneds.htm
47
StEP – Solving the E-Waste Problem; http://www.step-initiative.org/
38
the original functionality specifications. To refurbish a product requires disassembling the unit only
to the extent that is required to ensure the testing and reprocessing of all components not meeting
these specifications. The unit’s composition and design is not changed significantly. The term
recondition is understood synonymously for refurbish” (StEP 2009).
Moreover, it should be considered that refurbishment implies a supplementary sorting of all
collected devices and a supplementary testing of the devices selected for refurbishment. Thus, to
operate refurbishment requires a not negligible additional labour force.
39
3.2 Model Description
Based on the gathered information during the present study and during the investigations of the
report by GIZ (2010), a Microsoft Excel based model of an e-waste business was developed in
order
1. to estimate the rough cash flow of a potential e-waste business, and
2. to deepen the knowledge of the sensitivities of the business in order to identify the key
processes and parameters.
The purpose of the model is to consider all relevant financial flows which occur during the
operation of a local e-waste business. The model core consists of a dismantling operation, where
the appliances are disassembled manually. It is designed to include several appliances of the EU-
WEEE directive categories 3 and 4: PCs (LCD & CRT monitor), laptops, printers, mobile phones,
TV sets (LCD & CRT monitor), audio devices and video devices. Around this dismantling
operation, the following components associated to e-waste business are taken into account:
 Transports
Transports during collection, from dismantling to downstream processing
 Collection
Collection infrastructure, remuneration of certain stakeholders
 Downstream processing (mainly recovery and disposal)
Treatment in recovery and disposal facilities
 Administration
Labour and rental costs, further costs
 PR and monitoring costs were assigned to the further administration costs (input parameter
as % of total administration and dismantling costs)
 Refurbishment of desktop PCs and laptops, comprising a previous sorting and testing of the
collected appliances (optional)
Labour and rental costs, further costs as well as the sale of the refurbished appliances were
taken into account.
The cost calculation for the dismantling operation itself comprises the labour and rental costs plus
further costs as a percentage of the former.
40
Collection
• Transport costs
• Labour expenditures
• Price paid to suppliers
(incentive)
Interface Dismantling/Administration
Transportation costs
• Model input • Labour expenditures
PWB price calculation

• Parameter variation • Rental costs
• Further costs
• Model results
etc.
End-processing costs
Refurbishment (optional) WEEE composition
• % of appliances apt for Material composition

refurbishment
• Labour expenditures • Combines composition
• Sales price of refurbished data with end-processing
appliances and transportation costs
Figure 16. Simple schema of the MS Excel model.
The flexibility of the model is its crucial feature. Many of the parameters in the model are
adjustable, e.g. the volume and the composition of the collected e-waste, the downstream
processors of the different e-Waste fractions, the commodity prices, etc. Nevertheless, for the final
evaluations with the model most of the parameter had to be fixed. To approximate realistic
conditions, the most important assumptions made for this purpose were shared and adjusted with
stakeholders involved in a similar project in Cape Town, South Africa48 (Dittke 2009).
3.2.1 Assumptions for the Reference Scenario
The given assumptions provide a rough overview of the most relevant model parameter settings
that were used for the reference scenario in this study. This reference scenario was arranged in a
way that a realistic business model is reflected, considering factors like appliances scope,
requested standards, experiences made in South Africa, etc. For the subsequent parameter
sensitivity analysis, these basic settings of the reference scenario were varied (chapter 4.2).
Some further assumptions are given in appendix 7.4.
48
Material dismantling and recovery facility (MRF) in Cape Town, South Africa – assumptions shared: dismantling
productivity, required area for storage and dismantling.
41
Facility location Casablanca
Appliance scope  Desktop PC (LCD & CRT monitor)

 Laptop
 Printer
 TV set (LCD & CRT monitor)
Ø Appliance composition See Table 10, mainly based on (GIZ 2010)
Further costs 40% of total considered costs for dismantling & administration, this
includes PR and monitoring costs
Collection scheme 50% collected via B2B scheme (companies, administrations)

50% collected via informal sector (households)
Price paid to suppliers  Informal sector:

0.5 MAD/kg for CRTs, 2.5 MAD/kg for other WEEE49
 B2B:
0.25 MAD/kg for CRTs, 1.25 MAD/kg for other WEEE
Commodity prices Average prices for 201050 (Au, Ag, Pd, Cu, Fe, Al considered)
Recovery 75% of potential value is recovered by dismantling
Minimal wage 3’000 MAD/month
Dismantling productivity 2.5 tons of WEEE per month per workforce (based on experiences
from Cape Town)
Table 10. Appliance composition Morocco (based on GIZ (2010) and assumptions, see appendix 7.5).
appliance
appliance
Desktop
CRT TV
LCD TV
monitor
monitor
Laptop
Mobile
Printer
(CPU)
phone
Audio
Video
CRT
LCD
General appliance composition:
16.4% 18.7% 1.4% 0.9% 6.2% 1.4% 34.5% 4.1% 12.5% 3.8%
Appliance composition for the reference scenario:
19.9% 22.7% 1.7% 1.1% 7.6% 0.0% 42.0% 5.0% 0.0% 0.0%
1 € ≈ 11,2 MAD; 4.11.2010

49
50
42
3.2.1.1 Downstream processing
Through the dismantling of the appliances various material fractions are generated. For each of
those fractions, several downstream processors are conceivable. Table 11 gives an overview of
the different downstream processing alternatives which were arranged. Hereafter, the purpose of
each alternative is described:
Alternative 1 “The downstream processing is carried out in Morocco, irrespective of the costs or
the environmental performance.”
Alternative 2 “The downstream processing generates as much revenue as possible and causes
as little costs as possible, irrespective of the treatment location or the environmental
performance.”
Alternative 3 “Main purpose is to carry out the downstream processing in an environmental sound
manner as far as possible. Additionally, the downstream processing is economically
optimized, considering national processors as well as international processors.”
Table 11. Downstream processing scenarios for each fraction (alternative 3 was chosen as reference
sceanario).
Fractions Alternative 1 Alternative 2 Alternative 3
Copper Mac//Z Mac//Z Mac//Z
Aluminum Mac//Z Mac//Z Mac//Z
Iron Mac//Z Mac//Z Mac//Z
PWB high grade Valdeme Umicore, Belgium Umicore, Belgium
PWB medium grade Valdeme Umicore, Belgium Umicore, Belgium
PWB low grade Valdeme Umicore, Belgium Umicore, Belgium
CRT glass Landfill Landfill Griag, Germany
Plastics Aquaflor Export to China MBA, China
Plastics with FR Aquaflor Export to China MBA, China
Cables Mac//Z Mac//Z Mac//Z
Waste Landfill Landfill Disposal, Spain
Hg-Lamps, LCD Landfill Landfill Relec, Spain
Batteries Landfill Umicore, Belgium Umicore, Belgium
The selection of the different downstream processors is highly relevant for the environmental and
financial performance of the e-waste business. HP requires strict environmental and EHS
standards (see chapter 2.2), so in a potential pilot business only downstream processors that
comply with those standards can be considered. Thus, of the 3 alternatives presented in Table 11
alternative 3 was selected as standard downstream processing for the reference scenario and all
the further parameter sensitivity analysis.
3.2.2 Refurbishment Module
Apart from the main division of the business – the recycling of e-waste –, an additional potential
division is the refurbishment of suitable devices which are collected in order to sell them. The
explicit motivation for this supplementary activity is to establish an additional revenue source.
43
However, if the refurbishment of collected appliances does not contribute to a better financial
performance of the business, there is little reason to include this business activity.
In the model, the whole refurbishment comprises several stages. Firstly, all the collected
appliances are sorted according to their suitability for being refurbished. Then, those devices are
tested for their functionality and finally the refurbishment itself is carried out.
The purpose of this module is to get an idea of the uncertainties related to the question: What
would be the economic effect of an inclusion of the refurbishment under different circumstances?
3.2.2.1 Basic Assumptions
Due to a considerable lack of hard data concerning the refurbishment of e-waste, several rough
assumptions had to be made. Some of those assumptions rely on experiences made in South
Africa51, but nevertheless the results of the refurbishment modeling should be interpreted carefully.
Appliances scope Only PCs (CRT & LCD monitors) and laptops
Considered processes Sorting, testing and refurbishment
Further costs 70% of total considered costs
Suitable share  From B2B-collection: 20% of collected appliances suitable for

refurbishment
 From household collections: 5% of collected appliances
suitable for refurbishment
Laptop share Based on generated e-waste (GIZ 2010)
Rate refurbishment – 50% of the material assigned to refurbishment ends up as e-waste

recycling again
Worker’s productivity  Sorting: 200 units/month per worker

 Testing: 100 units/month per worker
 Refurbishment: 100 units/month per worker
Product prices  Refurbished PC: 1’200 MAD52

 Refurbished laptop: 2’500 MAD
Revenue factor 100%
Work space / worker 50 m2
51
Cape Town Material Recovery Facility (MRF)
1 € ≈ 11,2 MAD; 4.11.2010

52
44
4 Model Results
This chapter is divided into three sub-chapters. In chapter 4.1 the model results for the reference
scenario are reproduced, in chapter 4.2 the results for the parameter sensitivity analysis based on
the reference scenario and in chapter 4.3 the results for the additional refurbishment module.
Generally, it should be recalled that the model results have to be interpreted with caution, always
bearing in mind the relative scarcity of reliable data. Undeniably, a more reliable model would
require further data, among others data resulting from first operational e-waste experiences in
Morocco. Nonetheless the nucleus of the model is based on data which outline realistic
circumstances, such as the average material composition, the labour costs, the treatment prices,
etc. Additionally, the necessary assumptions were discussed internally at Empa which disposes of
a long-standing experience in the field of e-waste in developing countries. Starting from this basis,
the model allows to understand the basic mechanisms and to analyse the sensitivities of the
business.
4.1 Reference Scenario
Figure 13 shows the resulting cost/benefit of the e-waste business in Moroccan Dirham at given
volumes of treated appliances (PCs, printers, TV sets). The black line (“Reference Scenario”)
reflects the resulting cost/benefit values which were calculated at 50 t/y-intervals of the treated
volume, while the dashed red line is a polynomial trendline of the former.
It is estimated that the break-even of the e-waste business for the reference scenario is at
approximately 2'600 t of e-waste treated per year. Focusing only on the downstream processing,
each kilogram of e-waste results in a revenue of approximately 4.5 MAD. Hence, under the given
conditions the e-waste business is only financially sustainable if the total costs per kilogram of
treated e-waste do not exceed this value. Due to the uncertainties of the model, those numbers
should be interpreted prudently.
45
200
0
-200
-400
-600
Reference Scenario
Trendline
-800
-1'000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 17. Cost/Benefit for the reference scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
There are two main aspects in the graph which draw the attention. (1) The unsteady fluctuation of
the black graph is mainly a consequence of the employment of further personnel for dismantling
and administration at increasing volumes. While the revenue, which is generated by the sale of e-
waste fractions, rises linearly, the hiring of each new employee cuts back the cash flow at defined
intervals. The irregularity of the fluctuation is an effect of different modelling steps for the
cost/benefit calculation (step is set for 50 t/y) and the hiring of further personnel (step is set at 30
t/y per new employee).
(2) The other peculiar aspect is the gradient of the graphs, which indicates mainly two stages of
development. This is better visualized by the dashed red trendline. The first stage ranges from 0 to
750 t/y and exhibits a steeper gradient than the gradient of the second stage (> 750 t/y), which
remains constant to the top. This subdivision of the gradient can be explained by the influence of
the fix costs, which is significantly higher at low treated volumes. In this first stage, the share of the
fix costs in the total costs decreases with increasing volumes, while this share does not change
essentially anymore in the second stage. However, in reality the share of the fix costs in the total
costs might increase again at bigger volumes, due to a substantial rise of the (fix & variable)
collection costs towards a high collection quota. This is not considered in the model.
4.1.1 Revenue Share
The revenue of the e-waste business is generated by the commercialization of the different
fractions that result from dismantling (see Table 12). Depending on the material composition of
each appliance (see appendix 7.4), the appliance composition of the e-waste stream and the
selected downstream processing alternative, differing revenue shares result.
46
Table 12. Revenue share per fraction for each appliance (with downstream processing alternative 3).
PWB PWB PWB
Cu Al Fe high grade medium grade low grade Cables
PC/Server* 0.2% 8.5% 17.0% 0.0% 66.6% 4.5% 3.1%
CRT monitor* 55.3% 4.6% 3.0% 0.0% 0.0% 37.0% 0.0%
LCD monitor* 3.0% 4.2% 6.3% 84.2% 0.0% 0.0% 2.2%
Laptop* 12.0% 8.7% 9.2% 0.0% 68.6% 0.0% 1.5%
Printer* 18.7% 0.5% 7.4% 0.0% 70.3% 0.0% 3.0%
Mobile Phones 0.0% 0.8% 0.4% 98.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
CRT TV* 39.7% 0.0% 6.1% 0.0% 0.0% 54.2% 0.0%
LCD TV* 2.8% 3.8% 5.7% 86.7% 0.0% 0.0% 1.1%
Audio 27.9% 2.2% 12.8% 0.0% 0.0% 57.1% 0.0%
Video 20.7% 3.0% 15.8% 0.0% 0.0% 60.5% 0.0%
* appliance considered in reference scenario
For the appliance composition in the reference scenario and under consideration of the average
appliance composition given in Morocco (GIZ 2010), in particular copper, medium and low grade
PWBs are significant for the overall revenue of the business (all appliances in the reference
scenario). They amount to approximately 75% of the total income as Figure 18 shows.
Battery
Cables
Plastics 1.3% 0.2%
Rest
0.0% 0.2%
PWB low
grade Copper
23.1% 25.0%
Aluminium
4.0%
PWB Iron
medium 8.4%
grade
PWB high
26.2%
grade
Other
11.6%
metals
0.0%
Figure 18. Revenue share per fraction for reference scenario (PCs, printers, TV sets).
In relation to the commercialization of PWBs – and considering that their revenue share amounts
to more than 50% – it is important to take the minimal lot sizes into account which are required by
Umicore53. If the volumes of PWBs do not exceed those minimal lot sizes, Umicore does not
53
Other integrated metal smelters seem to demand higher minimal lot sizes.
47
accept the PWB lots and no revenue can be generated (until the required volume is reached).
Below, the volumes of treated e-waste to reach the minimum lot size of PWBs are indicated,
according to the reference scenario.
Table 13. Required minimal lot size and necessary throughput to reach it (Umicore).
PWB type Minimal lot size, Umicore Necessary throughput [treated e-waste/year]
Low grade 10 t 200 t/y
Medium grade 7t 280 t/y
High grade 5t 720 t/y
4.1.2 Expenses Share
The three pie charts below indicate the relative share of the different processes in the total costs at
different e-waste throughputs. At a low throughput of 100 t/y, the administration of the business
amounts to one third of the total costs, while the shares of the processes which cause rather
variable costs than fix costs still remain small (downstream processing, dismantling). The big share
of the collection costs is caused by a collection scheme for the informal sector with high fix costs.
At higher throughputs the percentage of the labour intensive dismantling grows constantly and
adds up to more than 40% at a treated e-waste volume of 2000 t/y. In contrast to this, the
administration share decreases to 10%. The fact that the cost shares do not change significantly
between a throughput of 500 and 2000 t/y confirms the segmented gradient in Figure 17 at ~750
t/y.
100 t/y 500 t/y 2000 t/y

0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
10.2%
18.9% 16.2%
32.3% 36.1% 15.4% 42.3%

13.1%
43.3% 32.0%
5.4% 34.6%
Dismantling Facility Collection EndProcessing

Downstream processing
Administration Refurbishment
Figure 19. Expenses share at different volumes of treated e-waste per year.
48
4.2 Parameter Sensitivities
To evaluate the relevance of the different parameters and processes, a simple sensitivity analysis
was carried out. With different defined parameter sets (e.g. different commodity prices), the treated
e-waste volume per year was varied (x-axis) in order to examine if the business performance
increases or decreases with rising volume (cost/benefit on y-axis). The different parameter sets
and the respective results are described in the following chapters.
4.2.1 Parameter “Commodity Prices”
A significant share of the revenues are linked with the sales of metals or PWBs (see chapter 4.1.1).
Hence, the overall business performance is expected to be highly dependent on international
commodity prices.
4.11.2010 Ø 2010 Ø 2008 Ø 2004-2008 Ø 2004

1'000
500
-
-500
-1'000
-1'500
-2'000
-2'500
-3'000
-3'500
-4'000
-4'500
-5'000
-5'500
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 20. Sensitivity for commodity prices (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
Figure 20 confirms this dependency. The business performance changes significantly as a result of
varying commodity prices. It should be noted that the parameter “commodity prices” only affects
the revenues of the business, not the costs of the business. In Table 14 the revenues obtained by
commercialization of downstream processing fractions for different commodity price scenarios in
relation to the scenario Ø 2010 are represented. It shows that the average commodity prices have
been rising constantly from 2004 to 2010. In consequence of this increase, the revenues of the
business would have risen by 400% in this period (Ø 2004 to Ø 2010). As can be seen in Figure
20, the increasing commodity prices in the past years make for the potential yield of the business
according to the reference scenario settings.
49
Table 14. Revenue generated by commercialization of downstream processing fractions at different

commodity prices in relation to the average commodity prices 2010.
Commodity price 4.11.2010 Ø 2010 Ø 2008 Ø 2004-2008 Ø 2004
Revenue in relation
117% 100% 77% 54% 27%
to Ø 2010
4.2.2 Parameter “Appliance Composition”
Each material fraction generated during the dismantling causes a certain cost or revenue. Due to
the varying material composition of each appliance (see appendix 7.4), the overall appliance
composition of the collected e-waste has a direct impact on the business performance.
Table 15. Appliance composition for the different scenarios (by weight).
monitor
monitor
CRT-TV
LCD-TV
Laptop
Printer
Mobile
Audio
Video
CPU
CRT
LCD
All 16.4% 18.7% 1.4% 0.9% 6.2% 1.4% 34.5% 4.1% 12.5% 3.8%
IT & TV* 19.9% 22.7% 1.7% 1.1% 7.6% 42% 5%
IT 37.5% 42.8% 3.3% 2.2% 14.3%
Mobile 100%
TVs 89.4% 10.6%
Audio & Video 76.9% 23.1%
* reference scenario appliance composition
To examine the impact of a differing appliance composition on the business performance, six
scenarios were compiled (see Table 15). Apart from the mobile phone scenario, the appliance
composition of each scenario comprises more than one device type. This respective share of the
devices is based on GIZ (2010) and supplementary assumptions (see chapter 3.2.1 and appendix
7.4).
In Figure 21 the business performance for different appliance composition scenarios is shown. It is
apparent that the only scenarios which do not result in rising yields with increasing throughput
(volume/year) are the TVs scenario and the Audio & Video scenario. A good business performance
is expected for the IT scenario with a break-even at ~550 t/y. But even the scenarios All appliances
and IT & TVs reach the break-even, although at higher e-waste throughputs (All: ~1’600 t/y; IT &
TVs: ~2’600 t/y).
The remarkably positive result of the Mobile phones scenario with an apparent break-even at 42 t/y
is not realistic because of the difficulty of collecting high volumes. The collection scheme which is
implemented in the model is not designed to take into account small appliances like mobile
50
phones. Moreover, the share of the mobile phones in the scenario All appliances is probably
overestimated. If the mobile phones are excluded from this scenario, the break-even is reached
only at 8000 t/y instead of 1’600 t/y.
All appliances IT & TVs IT

Mobiles TVs Audio & Video
1'000
750
500
250
0
-250
-500
-750
-1'000
-1'250
-1'500
-1'750
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 21. Sensitivity for the overall appliance composition (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
4.2.3 Parameter “Dismantling Depth – Recovery Rate”
The recovery rate R in the model describes the share of the valuable materials (e.g. copper,
PWBs, etc.) which can be recovered during the dismantling in the facility in order to supply them to
the appropriate downstream processors. This implies that the value of those fractions is indeed
recovered and that the fractions are not supplied to an incineration or a landfill. To achieve a high
recovery rate is an important condition to financially optimize the business given that it represents
the only revenue from the recycling activity.
The recovery rate R depends on the depth D of the manual dismantling. The deeper the
dismantling, the higher the rate of recovery. In the model, D is reproduced by the dismantling
volume that can be treated per month and worker. So, a deep dismantling is expressed by a low D.
Due to the matrix in which the different materials are enclosed, a recovery rate of 100% is not even
attainable with an extreme effort (deep manual dismantling) for most of the materials in case of e-
waste. According to experiences made by Empa in other countries, at least a recovery rate of
about 75% should be feasible with a labour-intensive deep manual dismantling, which would
correspond to about 2.5 t/month per worker in the reference scenario (Newson et al. 2011).
Even though a deep manual dismantling contributes to a higher revenue, it has to be considered
that the labour costs increase with the depth of the dismantling. With the intent to better
51
understand the influence of those factors (revenue vs. labour costs) on the overall budget, different
scenarios were delineated and evaluated in the model.
There is only scarce data on the effect of the dismantling depth on the recovery rate. Based on the
experience of Empa, the two scenarios which probably come closest to the reality are scenario R
75% / D 2.5 (the reference scenario) and R 50% / D 4. Assuming those two scenarios as realistic,
(Newson et al. 2011) shows that a better rate of recovery caused by deep manual dismantling (R
75% / D 2.5) outweighs the higher labour costs. The scenario with a less intensive dismantling (R
50% / D 4) results in a poorer business performance.
R 75% / D 2.5 R 50% / D 4
-100
-300
-500
-700
-900
-1'100
-1'300
-1'500
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 22. Sensitivity for recovery rate and manual dismantling depth; D in t/(month * worker).
1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010.
A more thorough analysis of the optimal dismantling depth for computers from an economic and
environmental perspective can be found in Gmuender (2007).
4.2.4 Parameter “LCD – CRT share”
It is generally known that the treatment of the cathode ray tubes (CRTs) generates high costs due
to its significant content of lead glass. But in consequence of the technology trend towards LCD
monitors for TVs and PCs in recent years, the share of CRTs in e-waste is expected to decrease in
the years to come. In Figure 23 the impact of a variation of the LCD – CRT share of both TV and
PC monitors on the business performance is presented. In the interpretation of the graph, a special
side effect has to be taken into consideration; in the model, we define a certain weight (volume) of
e-waste which is treated and thus also a specific weight of obsolete PCs and TVs. Given the lower
average weight of LCD monitors, a variation of the CRT – LCD share implies a change of the total
number of PCs and TVs that is treated. For example, a shift to a higher LCD share in the model
causes a rise in the total number of PCs and TVs (at a constant treated volume).
52
The results demonstrate that the trend towards LCD monitors will have a significant positive effect
on the costs of an e-waste business. This is due to the lower treatment costs of LCD screens as
well as to a potentially higher revenue resulting from an increasing number of treated CPUs, which
is caused by the effect delineated above.
LCD 0% - CRT 100% LCD 20% - CRT 80% LCD 50% - CRT 50%
900
700
500
300
100
-100
-300
-500
-700
-900
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 23. Sensitivity for LCD – CRT share (TVs & PC monitors). 1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010.
4.2.5 Parameter Labour Costs
In an e-waste business based on manual dismantling, the labour costs can account for a relevant
share in the total costs. However, the wage for a basic workforce is not fluctuating a lot within a
country. A comparison of realistic wages for dismantling labour force in different countries was
carried out in order to analyse the influence of labour costs on the business performance. A list
with minimum and realistic wages in the different countries is shown in Table 16. In Morocco, the
minimum wage is 10,64 MAD/hour, resulting in a monthly minimum wage of about 2’500 MAD54
(~226 €). However, according to information provided by Al Jisr an appropriate monthly wage
amounts to around 3’000 MAD. This latter wage was used in the reference scenario. It should be
kept in mind that apart from the wage no further parameter is adapted to the respective country for
this comparison.
54
This value includes non-wage labour costs
53
Figure 24. Sensitivity for wages (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
In contrast with most of the analysed Asian and African countries, Morocco’s (minimum & realistic)
wages are significantly higher. An exemption is South Africa, where the wages paid in the Cape
Town project exceed the wages assumed for the reference scenario of Morocco (Newson et al.
2011). This is reflected in Figure 24, which shows that other Asian and African countries break
even below 500 tons of treated e-waste per year (given the model settings of the reference
scenario). Hence, due to the relatively high labour costs in Morocco the manual dismantling depth
should be carefully determined (see chapter 4.2.3).
A comparison to French minimum wages (blue graph) shows plainly that a deep manual
dismantling of e-waste under European circumstances is economically not feasible. This fact points
out the opportunity for job creation in developing countries due to high commodity prices and low
labour costs.
54
Table 16. Monthly wages in different countries.

Morocco Kenya Ghana Nigeria SA China India France
Minimum wages; source: US RM (n.d.); ILO (2010)
€/month 226 68 18.4 42.5 120 81 57 1’344
Realistic wages for recycling activities
€/month 2711 782 793 674 2905 816 577 1’3448
MAD/month 3’000 859 876 751 3’200 894 629 14'842

1
oral information by Al Jisr (minimum wage: 2’500 MAD/month; wage paid: 3’000 MAD/month)
2
formal recycling company, Kenya
3
wages earned in the informal sector (Prakash et al. 2010)
4
wages earned in the informal sector (Manhart et al. 2011)
5
formal recycling company, Cape Town project (Newson et al. 2011)
6
minimum wage is used
7
information provided by David Rochat, Empa; minimum wage corresponds to realistic wage
8
minimum wage is used
4.2.6 Parameter “Collection Scheme”
Due to a lack of information, only two collection schemes could be taken into account in the model.
On one hand a B2B-collection scheme where the appliances are picked up directly at the source
(e.g. enterprise, authorities) and on the other hand a collection scheme that involves the informal
sector taking the appliances from the source (e.g. households, small companies) to several
collection points.
50% - 50% B2B Informal Sector B2B - same price

500
400
300
200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
-400
-500
-600
-700
-800
-900
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 25. Sensitivity for collection schemes (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
55
Three basic collection scenarios were calculated: (1) The e-Waste is collected in equal shares via
the B2B-scheme and the informal sector (50%-50%). This is the scheme applied in the reference
scenario. Two further scenarios refer to the situation that all e-waste is collected via (2) the B2B-
scheme or (3) the Informal Sector.
The graphic points out that the business performance is better if only a B2B collection scheme is
run. But an important assumption with regard to the collection costs has to be considered: the price
which is paid to purchase the appliances in a B2B-scheme is assumed to be half of the price which
is offered to the stakeholders of the informal sector (see chapter 3.2.1). If the same price of the
informal sector was paid in a B2B scheme as well, the results would not differ significantly
anymore. This is shown by the scenario B2B – same price. The difference between the scenarios
Informal Sector and B2B – same price is based upon the higher fix costs considered for the
collection scheme of the informal sector.
Hence, if a price has to be paid to get hold of the appliances, this price is decisive for the collection
costs. Moreover, it is apparent that the logistic costs of the B2B-scheme are less expensive than
the logistic costs for the informal sector scheme.
4.2.7 Parameter Incentive System – “Price paid to suppliers”
This parameter refers to the price which is paid to purchase the obsolete appliances from either
the user itself or a collector of e-waste, e.g. the scavengers of the informal sector. For simplicity’s
sake the price is indicated as MAD/kg WEEE in the model, irrespective of the type of appliance
purchased. An exception is the price for CRT monitors, which is five times lower than for the rest of
the appliances.
For the collection of obsolete appliances, this price is a crucial parameter which can potentially
amplify the volume which is collected by incentivizing the stakeholders. It is difficult to determine a
plausible price which is attractive enough that the users/scavengers bring back their equipment
and nonetheless does not represent a high financial burden for the business. Therefore it is
essential to know how sensitive the cash flow reacts to a price variation.
Table 17. Scenario description for the comparison of incentive schemes.

Scenario Description
Standard Prices used in the reference scenario (WEEE: 2,5 MAD/kg, CRTs: 0,5 MAD/kg);
50% B2B-collection, 50% collection via the informal sector
Standard x 2 Ditto, but the price is duplicated (WEEE 5 MAD/kg, CRTs 1 MAD/kg)
Informal Sector (IS) Prices used in the reference scenario (WEEE: 2,5 MAD/kg, CRTs: 0,5 MAD/kg);
100% collection via the informal sector
IS x 2 Ditto, but the price is duplicated (WEEE 5 MAD/kg, CRTs 1 MAD/kg)
56
IS x 3 Ditto, but the price is tripled (WEEE 7,5 MAD/kg, CRTs 1,5 MAD/kg)
B2B55 Prices used in the reference scenario (WEEE: 2,5 MAD/kg, CRTs: 0,5 MAD/kg);
100% B2B-collection
B2B x 2 Ditto, but the price is duplicated (WEEE 5 MAD/kg, CRTs 1 MAD/kg)
Standard Standard x 2 Informal Sector IS x 2

IS x 3 B2B B2B x 2
500
0
-500
-1'000
-1'500
-2'000
-2'500
-3'000
-3'500
-4'000
-4'500
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 26. Sensitivity to purchase price of e-waste during collection (“x 2” respectively “x 3”
indicates a multiplication of the purchase price for the respective collection scheme). 1’000 MAD ≈
88 €; 4.11.2010.
As shown in chapter 4.2.6, a B2B collection scheme generates less fix costs than the collection via
the informal sector under the assumed conditions. The graphs in Figure 26 show that the overall
budget of the business is sensitive to the purchase price paid to the e-waste suppliers. The effect
of a multiplication of this price seems to be higher for the informal sector than for the B2B-scheme,
but in fact this is due to the lower price (50% of the price in the IS-scheme) which is set as the
standard price.
As a consequence, this price should be determined, respectively negotiated, very carefully in order
to determine a price which provides sufficient incentive to the suppliers but does not strain the
budget too much.
55
B2B – business to business, the e-waste is picked up directly at the companies/authorities (major consumers) by the
e-waste management system
57
4.3 Including Reuse and Refurbishment
As mentioned in the description of the refurbishment module, the interpretation of the results
should be done with prudence by reason of the unreliable data it is based on (chapter 3.2.2). This
module helps to evaluate to a certain extent what would be the economic effect of an inclusion of
the refurbishment under different circumstances. All the parameters for the e-waste module are set
according to the reference scenario for the subsequent calculations.
As soon as first experiences are made in a refurbishment project in Morocco, data based on those
experiences should be gathered in order to improve the underlying assumptions of the model.
Possibly the refurbishment project Green Chip in Casablanca of the association Al Jisr could
provide first data of this kind.
4.3.1 Reference Refurbishment Scenario
Firstly, it makes sense to recall the most important assumptions for the refurbishment module
(further assumptions see chapter 3.2.2.1):
 Only PCs and laptops are refurbished
 12,5% of the PCs and laptops are apt for refurbishment56
 Price of sale: 1’200 MAD/PC and 2’500 MAD/laptop57
Under the supposed conditions the business performance is significantly better if the refurbishment
of the computers is included (Figure 27). The break-even is expected to be reached at 600 tons of
collected e-waste per year instead of 2’600 t/y (reference scenario for recycling without
refurbishment).
56
20% of computers from B2B-collection, 5% of computers from informal sector are apt for recycling (by weight).
Thereof, 50% are assumed to end up as e-waste again during refurbishment.
1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010

57
58
Recycling Refurbishment Total
1'500
1'250
1'000
750
500
250
-
-250
-500
-750
-1'000
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 27. Inclusion of the reference refurbishment scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
4.3.2 “Pessimistic” Refurbishment Scenario
It is difficult to determine a worst case scenario given the lack of data for refurbishment. Anyway,
with the objective of analysing a pessimistic scenario, the following parameter modifications were
made:
 6.25% of the PCs and laptops are apt for refurbishment58
 Price of sale: 800 MAD/PC and 1’500 MAD/laptop
In Figure 28 the effect of those parameter modifications is shown. For this particular case, the
refurbishment never reaches the break-even and remains a burden for the business’ budget. But it
is noted that this burden is rather small even under pessimistic circumstances.
58
10% of computers from B2B-collection, 2.5% of computers from informal sector are apt for recycling (by weight).
Thereof, 50% are assumed to end up as e-waste again during refurbishment.
59
Recycling Refurbishment Total
-100
-350
-600
-850
-1'100
- 200 400 600 800 1'000 1'200 1'400 1'600
WEEE treated [t/y]
Figure 28. Inclusion of a pessimistic refurbishment scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010).
60
5 Conclusions
5.1 Current Situation
In 2008, roughly 40’000 tons of obsolete IT equipment and consumer goods were generated in
Morocco (WEEE categories 3 & 459, see chapter 3.1.4.1). The stock of these appliances in
Morocco is estimated to amount to more than 300’000 tons. Considering the fast growth of EEE
consumption, the volumes of e-waste are likely to increase. Those numbers emphasize the
urgency of a sound e-waste management in Morocco.
Despite the absence of an integral solution, several activities in the field of e-waste do exist
(chapter 2.3) and various companies are showing increasing interest in the treatment of e-waste.
However, current efforts are still in pilot stage with small e-waste throughput and do not meet
international environmental standards yet.
Apparently, collection of e-waste and hence gaining access to higher volumes is a big challenge.
This applies for both the collection via B2B channels (companies/authorities) and the collection
from households. In the case of the B2B collection for instance, stakeholders from the informal
sector are usually allowed to participate in e-waste tender offers by companies and authorities,
where they readily outcompete the formal bidders (chapter 2.3.1.3). The only stakeholder
succeeding in B2B collection to a certain degree is Al Jisr via its project Green Chip (chapter
2.3.1.1). With regard to the collection of appliances from households, almost no activity has been
detected during the studies. A concept for the collection of e-waste from household was developed
by IVSEP in Fes, but is not operational yet (chapter 2.3.1.1). Bearing in mind these challenges, it is
thus recommended to put a special emphasize on collection strategies in future initiatives for e-
waste management in Morocco.
A factor which could contribute to a more efficient collection and e-waste management in general
is a more specific legislation. To date no regulation regarding e-waste exists. The most relevant
law for e-waste management is law 28-00 which delineates the management and disposal of
waste in general. A decree based on this law could specify the management of e-waste. At the
same time the absence of specific regulation on e-waste can be an opportunity. It seems like the
less stringent regulation allows for more dynamics in e-waste businesses. Moreover, it allows to
introduce the initial experiences and concepts made by the local “forerunners”, as well as
international experiences into a future legislation on e-waste. On the other hand the current
legislation does not back the (formal) stakeholders which are active in the e-waste management in
their attempt to develop environmentally sound processes.
5.2 Economic Feasibility
The cost modelling of an e-waste recycling reference scenario lead to several conclusions
regarding the economic feasibility of dismantling operations in Morocco. Results suggest that
59
Appliances considered: PCs, laptops, TVs, mobile phones, audio & video appliances.
61
under the current local and global economic conditions a business model which relies solely on the
income generated by the intrinsic value of the treated material is feasible .
Success and sustainability of such a business model depends on a multitude of parameters, which
entail both opportunities and threats. Some crucial parameters have been analysed. The main
conclusions of this sensitivity analysis are summarized below.
 In none of the calculated scenarios the break-even is expected to be reached below a

treated volume of 500 tonnes per year. Hence an effective collection system is a
precondition for a successful recycling business. Thereby incentive systems will play a
crucial role, e.g. by providing an attractive service in a B2B collection scheme and a
reasonable incentive for the individual collectors. In addition ensuring cash flow with e.g.
seed-funding or providing grants in the initial phase of building up a business might be
required to bridge the gap until collection has reached critical volumes.
 Commodity prices have the strongest impact on the business performance. While current
prices allow for a working business case, the budget can readily become unbalanced if the
commodity prices fall below the average prices of 2010. Although the global economic
trend points towards rather stable or increasing commodity prices for a longer period, this
dependency has to be interpreted as a relevant risk for the business’ profitability.
 Due to a different material composition of specific appliances, business performance also
depends on the appliance composition of e-waste received. Given their high content in
copper and precious metals the treatment of IT equipment can generate a sufficient
revenue, which even allows to cross-finance the treatment of the high share of CRT
screens. It is therefore a promising approach to focus on a B2B collection of IT equipment
in the initial phase of establishing the business. Nevertheless, a large share of obsolete
appliances from households are TV sets, which inevitably will end up in the collection. As a
consequence, an inclusion of the key manufacturer and importers of TVs should be
considered as soon as it comes to collection from households.
 Due to their high treatment costs and its large share of the total treated volume (65% in the
reference scenario), the CRT monitors deserve special attention. In spite of the decreasing
sales numbers of CRT monitors, they will still make up a large proportion of the obsolete
monitors in the medium term. Thus, further downstream processing alternatives which help
to reduce the costs along with the compliance of environmental standards should be
analysed, such as the ongoing investigations with the national lead smelter SFPZ.
 Including reuse and refurbishment in the model calculations suggests that this
supplementary activity can add financial benefits. Even at a very low share of appliances
which can be used for refurbishment, this activity is not posing a high threat to the overall
business. To better assess opportunities and threats of including reuse and refurbishment,
two of its key criteria should be put on a more reliable data basis. (1) The actual share of
the collected devices (components) which are apt for refurbishment and (2) the potential
sales price of those devices. Unless this data is readily available it is advised against
including this activity from the very beginning of the business operation.
62
Although the model results suggest that, currently, e-waste recycling businesses in Morocco can
be run by relying on the intrinsic value of the treated material only, changing conditions can pose
relevant risks to the business. It is therefore concluded that sustainable recycling businesses can
only grow in Morocco in combination with a comprehensive framework, which ensures:
1. that business sustainability is also guaranteed under unfavourable economic conditions, i.e.
an additional flexible income stream enabled through a financing scheme needs to be
established for situations where the intrinsic value of the treated material is not sufficient for
a break-even;
2. that recycling businesses can grow in a level playing field; i.e. that legislation, as well as
monitoring and control mechanisms favour high standard operations;
3. that market incentive are set such as high collection and recycling rates are encouraged.
At the absence of a financing scheme, a level playing field and the right market incentive it is likely
that recyclers will not be interested in investing into sound operations and that cherry picking
activities with low environmental and social performance as well as low collection and material
recovery rates will prevail the situation in Morocco.
63
6 References
CNPML & Empa, Manual Técnico para el Manejo de Residuos de Aparatos Eléctricos y
Electrónicos, Bogotá, Colombia.
Dittke, S., 2009. The development of a Cape Town based regional integrated e-waste
management facility- a replicable concept for sustainable e-waste management in
developing countries.
EBPA, 2010. European Portable Battery Association. Available at:
http://www.epbaeurope.net/recycling.html#battery [Accessed December 12, 2010].
Gabriel, R., 2000. Leitfaden für die Behandlung von Elektro- und Elektronikgeräten,
Bundesministerium für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft.
GDRC, 2011. Solid Waste Management: Glossary. Global Development Research Center
GDRC. Available at: [Accessed February 14, 2011].
GIZ, 2010. Déchets des Équipements Électriques et Électroniques (DEEE) –
Développement d’un projet de recyclage orienté sur les conditions nationales et
économiquement autonome (autofinancement), Casablanca, Morocco: GIZ.
Gmuender, S., 2007. Recycling - from waste to resource: assessment of optimal manual
dismantling depth of a desktop PC in China based on eco-efficiency calculations.
Master Thesis. Zurich / St.Gallen Switzerland: Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (EPFL) / Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and
Research (Empa).
Hageluken, C., 2006. Improving metal returns and eco-efficiency in electronics recycling -
a holistic approach for interface optimisation between pre-processing and integrated
metals smelting and refining. In Electronics and the Environment, International
Symposium on. Los Alamitos, CA, USA: IEEE Computer Society, pp. 218-223.
HP, 2008a. HP Standard 007-2 Vendor Requirements for Hardware Recycling.
HP, 2008b. HP Standard 007-3 Vendor Requirements for Hardware Reuse.
HP, 2009. HP Supplier Code of Conduct. Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition.
ILO, 2010. Minimum wages database. Available at:
http://www.ilo.org/travaildatabase/servlet/minimumwages.
INOBAT, 2009. Tätigkeitsbericht 2008, INOBAT - Interessenorganisation
Batterienentsorgung.
Keller, M., 2006. Assessment of gold recovery processes in Bangalore, India and
evaluation of an alternative recycling path for printed wiring boards. Master Thesis.
Zurich & St.Gallen/ Switzerland: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH),
Materials Science and Technology Research Institute (Empa).
64
Laffely, J., 2007. Assessing cost implications of applying best e-waste recovery practices
in a manual disassembly material recovery facility in Cape Town, South Africa,
using process-based cost modelling. master thesis. Lausanne / St.Gallen
Switzerland: EPFL / Empa.
Manhart, A. et al., 2011. Informal e-waste management in Lagos, Nigeria - socio-economic
impacts and feasibility of international recycling co-operations., Freiburg & Lagos:
Report of component 3 of the UNEP SBC E-waste Africa Project.
Newson, G. et al., 2011. Revised Version of the Final Report on the Establishment of a
Cape Town Based Processing Facility for Electrical and Electronic Equipment,
Cape Town, South Africa: e-Alliance, Empa.
Oguchi, M., 2010. Estimation of metal content based on oral information from M. Oguchi.
Available at: [Accessed December 10, 2010].
Prakash, S. et al., 2010. Socio-economic assessment and feasibility study on sustainable
e-waste management in Ghana, Freiburg & Accra: Öko-Institut e.V. & Green
Advocacy Ghana.
Rochat, D. & Laissaoui, S.E., 2008. Technical report on the assessment of e-waste
management in Morocco, Casablanca, Morocco: Moroccan Cleaner Production
Center, Empa.
Schluep, M. et al., 2009. Recycling - from e-waste to resources, Sustainable innovation
and technology transfer industrial sector studies, Paris, France: UNEP, Empa,
Umicore, UNU.
StEP, 2009. One Global Understanding of Re-Use - Common Definitions, Bonn, Germany:
StEP - Solving the e-Waste Problem / UNU - United Nations University.
Swico, 2009. Tätigkeitsbericht 2008, Zürich, Switzerland: Swico Recycling.
UBR, 2010. Phone Call to Umicore Battery Recycling (UBR), 8 December 2010.
US RM, 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Available at:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/index.htm [Accessed December 10, 2010].
Wikipedia, 2011. Informal sector. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_sector
[Accessed February 7, 2011].
65
Glossary
Appliance Composition Appliance composition refers to the share each appliance has in the
e-waste stream. It does not refer to the specific material composition of the
appliances, see Material Composition.
Collection Collection comprises all the processes and infrastructure necessary to carry
together the appliances, excluding the actions undertaken to spread
information and raise the awareness among the society (see Public Relations).
CPU In this study, CPU (Central Processing Unit) refers to the computer tower. It
does not include the monitor, except for special cases when the monitor and
the CPU are enclosed in the same casing.
Dismantling Dismantling comprises any action undertaken to disassemble appliances in
order to recycle/refine its components and materials. If not specified otherwise,
in this study the term generally refers to manual dismantling.
Disposal Disposal comprises the landfilling of waste fractions in (sanitary) landfills and
the incineration of waste in adequate plants.
Downstream processes The downstream processes refer to the stages subsequent to the
dismantling and comprise all recipients of any fraction, including the
wholesalers and the stakeholders of the end-processing and the disposal.
End-processing The end-processing is part of the downstream processes and comprises the
processes that aim for a material recovery, e.g. metals refining.
Informal Sector “The informal sector […] is the part of an economy that is not taxed, monitored
by any form of government or included in any gross national product (GNP),
unlike the formal economy.” (Wikipedia 2011) Examples are scavengers or
non-registered companies.
Material Composition The material composition indicates the share of each material/fraction
in a device.
Pre-processing The aim of the pre-processing is to liberate the materials, to separate the
contaminants and direct them to adequate subsequent downstream
processes. It comprises the handling and sorting of the obsolete appliances as
well as their manual dismantling and mechanical processing. (StEP 2009)
Public Relations Public relations (PR) comprises marketing and awareness raising. It thus
refers to any action or measure which aims to the dissemination of information
about the business and to the awareness raising of waste problems and
opportunities.
Recovery rate The recovery rate in the model reflects the share of the material which can be
recovered during the dismantling in the facility in order to supply it to the
appropriate downstream processing. A recovery rate of 1 means that 100% of
the potentially recoverable valuable material is recovered.
66
Refurbishment Refurbishment comprises any action necessary to restore a unit up to a

defined condition in function and form that may be inferior to a new unit. The
output product meets the original functionality specifications. To refurbish a
product requires disassembling the unit only to the extent that is required to
ensure the testing and reprocessing of all components not meeting these
specifications. The unit’s composition and design is not changed significantly.
The term recondition is understood synonymously for refurbish (StEP 2009).
Repair Repair comprises any action necessary to correct any faults in a unit
preventing its specified operation. The output product is in functioning
condition. To repair a unit requires only process steps necessary to restore the
specified operation. The unit’s composition and design is not changed
significantly (StEP 2009).
Re-use Re-use of electrical and electronic equipment or its components is to continue
the use of it (for the same purpose for which it was conceived) beyond the
point at which its specifications fail to meet the requirements of the current
owner and the owner has ceased use of the product (StEP 2009).
Scavenger a person who picks out recyclables from mixed waste wherever it may be
temporarily accessible or disposed of (GDRC 2011). For the French
disambiguation of scavenger, see (GIZ 2010). Scavengers usually belong to
the informal sector.
67
List of Figures
Figure 1. e-Waste dismantling workplace, Valdeme. ...................................................................................... 14

Figure 2. Metal scrap depot, Valdeme. ............................................................................................................ 14
Figure 3. Metal scrap at Valdeme. ................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 4. Dismantling at Al Jisr. ....................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 5. Dismantling facility of Al Jisr. ............................................................................................................ 15
Figure 6. Blister from the PWB pilot plant........................................................................................................ 18
Figure 7. e-Waste in the metal scrap bulk (Mac//Z)......................................................................................... 19
Figure 8. Hoffmann shredder at Mac//Z........................................................................................................... 19
Figure 9. e-Waste take-back point (small intermediary), Fes. ......................................................................... 20
Figure 10. Cable burning, informal sector, Fes. .............................................................................................. 20
Figure 11. Push cart of a scavenger, Fes........................................................................................................ 20
Figure 12. Burning of lighting equipment, informal sector, Fes. ...................................................................... 20
Figure 13. e-Waste process chain. .................................................................................................................. 28
Figure 14. Reverse logistics - capitalization of distribution channels. ............................................................. 33
Figure 15. Exemplary sorting tree for the main appliances considered in the study. ...................................... 35
Figure 16. Simple schema of the MS Excel model. ......................................................................................... 41
Figure 17. Cost/Benefit for the reference scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010). ...................................... 46
Figure 18. Revenue share per fraction for reference scenario (PCs, printers, TV sets). ................................ 47
Figure 19. Expenses share at different volumes of treated e-waste per year. ................................................ 48
Figure 20. Sensitivity for commodity prices (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010). ................................................. 49
Figure 21. Sensitivity for the overall appliance composition (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010)......................... 51
Figure 22. Sensitivity for recovery rate and manual dismantling depth; D in t/(month * worker). 1’000 MAD ≈
88 €; 4.11.2010. ............................................................................................................................... 52
Figure 23. Sensitivity for LCD – CRT share (TVs & PC monitors). 1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010................. 53
Figure 24. Sensitivity for wages (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010). ................................................................... 54
Figure 25. Sensitivity for collection schemes (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010)................................................ 55
Figure 26. Sensitivity to purchase price of e-waste during collection (“x 2” respectively “x 3” indicates a
multiplication of the purchase price for the respective collection scheme). 1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €;
4.11.2010. ........................................................................................................................................ 57
Figure 27. Inclusion of the reference refurbishment scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010). ..................... 59
Figure 28. Inclusion of a pessimistic refurbishment scenario (1’000 MAD ≈ 88 €; 4.11.2010). ...................... 60
68
List of Tables
Table 1. Potential recycling procedures/technologies. .....................................................................................12

Table 2. Current Moroccan treatment options for e-waste fractions. ...............................................................13
Table 3. National refiner, adapted from Rochat and Laissaoui (2008).............................................................17
Table 4. List of integrated precious metal smelter, not exhaustive (CNPML & Empa n.d.). ............................23
Table 5. Average commodity prices for 2010. ..................................................................................................25
Table 6. Transportation costs (1 € ≈ 11,2 MAD; 4.11.2010). ...........................................................................26
Table 7. End-processing costs for different fractions. ......................................................................................27
Table 8. Estimated e-Waste stock in Morocco, 2008 & 2012 (in tons). ...........................................................31
Table 9. Estimated e-Waste flow in Morocco, 2008 & 2012 (in tons/year). .....................................................31
Table 10. Appliance composition Morocco (based on GIZ (2010) and assumptions, see appendix 7.5). .......42
Table 11. Downstream processing scenarios for each fraction (alternative 3 was chosen as reference
sceanario). ........................................................................................................................................43
Table 12. Revenue share per fraction for each appliance (with downstream processing alternative 3)..........47
Table 13. Required minimal lot size and necessary throughput to reach it (Umicore). ....................................48
Table 14. Revenue generated by commercialization of downstream processing fractions at different
commodity prices in relation to the average commodity prices 2010. ..............................................50
Table 15. Appliance composition for the different scenarios (by weight). ........................................................50
Table 16. Monthly wages in different countries. ...............................................................................................55
Table 17. Scenario description for the comparison of incentive schemes. ......................................................56
Table 18. Extract of the "Catalogue Marocain des Déchets" in the decree N° 2-07-253. ...................................I
Table 19. Collected economic data. ................................................................................................................. VI
69
List of Abbreviations
ABS Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene

B2B Business to Business
CMD Catalogue Marocain des Déchets
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
CCFL Cold cathode fluorescent lamps
CPU Central Processing Unit
EEE Electric and Electronic Equipment
EHS Environment, Health and Safety
EMPA Swiss Federal Institute for Material Science and Technology
ENIM Ecole Nationale de l’’Industrie Minérale
FR Flame Retardants
FTE Full Time Equivalents (= Full Time Employee)
GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH
H&S Health and Safety
HIPS High Impact Polystyrene
HP Hewlett-Packard
IC Integrated Circuit (Microprocessor)
ICT Information and Communication Technologies
IS Informal Sector
IVSEP Industrie Vertes et Services Propres
Li-Ion Lithium-ion battery
LME London Metal Exchange
MAD Moroccan Dirham (ISO-Code)
MRF Material Recovery Facility
MS Microsoft
NiMH Nickel-Metal Hydride battery
POP Persistant Organic Pollutant
PCB Polychlorinated Biphenyl
PP Polypropylene
PPP Public-Private Partnership
PS Polystyrene
PVC Polyvinyl Chloride
PWB Printed Wiring Board
SFPZ Société des Fonderies de Plomb de Zellidja
USD US Dollars
70
Valdeme Valorisation des Métaux

WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment
71
7 Appendix
7.1 WEEE Classification hazardous/non-hazardous
16 02 Déchets provenant d’équipements électriques ou électroniques

16 02 09 transformateurs et accumulateurs contenant des PCB DD
16 02 10 16 02 10 équipements mis au rebut contenant des PCB ou contaminés par de telles DD
substances autres que ceux visés à la rubrique 16 02 09
16 02 11 16 02 11 équipements mis au rebut contenant des chlorofluorocarbones, des HCFC DD
ou des HFC
16 02 12 équipements mis au rebut contenant de l’amiante libre DD
16 02 13 équipements mis au rebut contenant des composants dangereux (1) autres que DD
ceux visés aux rubriques 16 02 09 à 16 02 12
16 02 14 16 02 14 équipements mis au rebut autres que ceux visés aux rubriques 16 02 09 à
16 02 13
16 02 15 composants dangereux retirés des équipements mis au rebut DD
16 02 16 composants retirés des équipements mis au rebut autres que ceux visés à la
rubrique 16 02 15
(1) Par composants dangereux provenant d’équipements électriques et électroniques, on entend notamment des
piles et accumulateurs visés à la section 16 06 et considérés comme dangereux, des aiguilles de mercure, du verre
provenant de tubes cathodiques et autres verres activés, etc…
16 06 Piles et accumulateurs
16 06 01 accumulateurs au plomb DD
16 06 02 accumulateurs Ni-Cd DD
16 06 03 piles contenant du mercure DD
16 06 04 piles alcalines (sauf rubrique 16 06 03)
16 06 05 autres piles et accumulateurs
16 06 06 électrolyte de piles et accumulateurs collectés séparément DD
Table 18. Extract of the "Catalogue Marocain des Déchets" in the decree N° 2-07-253.
I
7.2 Relevant Regulations for WEEE management (Rochat & Laissaoui 2008)
Law, regulation, declaration or

General content Influence on WEEE management Status / date
charter
Enacted laws, decrees and orders
Enacted by Dahir
No. 1.03.59 of 10
- Sets out the guiding principles for environmental protection Treatment/recycling units are
Rabii I 1424 (12
and management responsible, even in the absence of
Law No. 11-03 on the protection and May 2003),
proof, for any direct or indirect bodily
enhancement of the environment - Lays down the overall legislative framework for published in
injury or damage to property linked to
environmental conservation Official Gazette
the pursuit of their activities
No. 5118 of June
2003
Enacted by Dahir
- Adoption of preventive measures designed to protect the No. 1.03.60 of 10
environment Rabii I 1424 (12
Any new project or extension of an
Law No. 12-03 on environmental - Makes approval of a project submitted for an EIS subject to May 2003),
existing project for the recycling or
impact studies an environmental acceptability decision published in
disposal of WEEE is subject to an EIS
- Grants the public the right to access the content of EISs, Official Gazette
with the exception of information deemed confidential No. 5118 of June
2003
Enacted by Dahir
- Prevents, reduces and limits emissions of pollutants into the
atmosphere - Ban on burning WEEE in the open air No. 1.03.61 of 10
Rabii I 1424 (12
- Establishes the general principle of banning the emission, - WEEE treatment projects must May 2003),
Law No. 13-03 on air pollution control incorporate technical solutions to
dumping, release or discharging into the atmosphere of published in
pollutants, in excess of the regulatory limits ensure compliance with the standards Official Gazette
(filters, etc.) No. 5118 of June
- Establishes reduction and control measures (by decree)
2003
II
- Defines the different types of waste, specifying waste

management procedures and the level at which waste is WEEE is classed as hazardous waste:
treated (local, regional or national) - System of licences at every stage of
- Clearly regulates the management of hazardous waste WEEE management – collection, Enacted by Dahir
transportation, storage and disposal No. 1.06.153 of
- Establishes rules for the organisation of existing dumps and
30 Chaoual 1427
calls for their replacement by sanitary landfills, classing them - Bans the mixing of hazardous waste
Law No. 28-00 on the management (22 November
in three different categories depending on the type of waste with other categories of waste
and disposal of waste - WEEE must be accompanied by a 2006), published
they are authorised to receive
in Official Gazette
- Provides for the establishment of three sorts of master plan, tracking sheet containing information No. 5480 of 7
at three different territorial levels, for three different categories about the shipper, carrier, consignee, December 2006
of waste the type and quantity of waste, the
mode of transport and the procedures
- Establishes a system for monitoring and detecting offences, for its disposal
together with penalties
- Quantitative and qualitative protection and conservation of - WEEE recycling or treatment Official Gazette
water undertakings that release effluent into No. 4324 24 Rabii
Law No. 10-95 on water
- Establishment of the user pays principle and the polluter surface water must apply for a II 1416 (20
pays principle discharge licence from the basin September 1995)
agency
- Direct or indirect discharge, run-off, effluent or deposits in
Decree No. 2-04-553 of 13 Hija 1425 surface water or groundwater are subject to prior - Obligation to pay the pollution charge Published in
on direct or indirect discharge, run- authorisation, granted by the basin agency (depending on whether organic matter, Official Gazette
off, effluent or deposits in surface suspended matter or liquid matter is No. 5292 of 17
- Introduce limit values for general or specific discharges involved), without exceeding the waste
water or groundwater February 2005
- Effluent charges limit values.
- Includes measures designed to rationalise the consumption Industrial WEEE recycling/reuse

of energy and water, and protect the environment projects could receive additional
benefits, such as partial exemption
Dahir No. 1-95-213 promulgating - Companies with important investment programmes, in terms
from the following expenses: Enacted on 8
framework law No. 18-95 forming the of the funds to be invested, the number of stable jobs to be
- Expenses related to purchasing the November 1995
investment charter created, the region of implementation, the technology to be
land required to make the investment;
transferred or the contribution to protecting the environment
- External infrastructure expenses;
may conclude specific agreements with the State that give
them additional benefits to those stipulated in this charter - Vocational training expenses.
Decree No. 1-02-297 promulgating law Once WEEE is disposed of (public bins Official Gazette of
The municipal council oversees health, safety and
No. 78-00 implementing the municipal and landfills), it becomes the property 21 November
environmental protection (Article 40)
charter of the local council 2002
III
Pending draft legislation
- WEEE recycling or treatment

undertakings that generate effluent (1st date of
Authorisation must be obtained from the administrative must apply for a discharge licence from
Bill No. 31-06 on the protection and transmission to
authorities before any effluent can be released into the sea, the competent authority
enhancement of the coast the SGG: 1
within the public domain
- This licence gives rise to the payment August 2006)
of effluent charges
- Sets the LVs for emissions of particulate matter, vapours

and gases, and defines procedures for monitoring such
Draft decree setting the limit emissions
(1st date of
values for air-pollutant emissions - Sets the general LVs and refers to joint orders for the setting - The operator must comply with the
transmission to
from stationary sources and of specific LVs emission LVs, taking all necessary
the SGG: 11 April
procedures for monitoring such - Specifies emission monitoring and self-checking procedures measures to ensure said compliance 2005)
emissions and establishes deadlines for the operators of existing
facilities to comply with the new legislation before it comes
into force
- Adoption of the international nomenclature, including the list

of hazardous wastes, for the purpose of internal management
of hazardous waste If, during the treatment of WEEE, any
Bill No. 2-07-253 on the Ratified by the
- Defines hazardous waste harmful or toxic substances are
classification of waste and Council of
- Discarded electronic equipment (such as printed circuit released, the waste in question may
defining the list of hazardous Ministers in July
boards) and other discarded electronic equipment is not become hazardous. A separate order
waste 2008
considered hazardous waste by the Moroccan Waste will define such cases.
Catalogue and can be disposed of in household waste
landfills and similar
Legislation currently being drafted
Bill on the right of the public to access environmental information and decision-making in environmental matters.
Draft joint order of the minister responsible for land management, water and the environment and the minister responsible for health in relation to vigilance
thresholds, information thresholds, alert thresholds and emergency measures.
IV
Draft decree regarding the National Hazardous Waste Master Plan.
Draft decree on sanitary landfills.
Draft decree relating to the incineration and co-incineration of waste.
Draft decree on transboundary movements of hazardous waste.
Voluntary initiatives
Encourages the continuous application of a preventive Adopting this strategy would enable
International declaration on cleaner strategy integrated into all processes, products and services, WEEE recycling/reuse firms to Adopted in
production with a view to achieving progress in the economy, social life, continually improve their environmental January 2003
health, safety and environment performance
- Protection of the natural environment, with a particular focus

on - Firms operating in the field of WEEE
improving environmental performance, communication and that want to adhere to this charter must
cooperation with local and public authorities, etc. comply with its content, particularly the
environmental aspects Adopted by the
Social Responsibility Charter of the - Reduce consumption of water, energy and raw materials National Business
CGEM (voluntary) and reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases - Firms may request the CGEM seal of Council
- Assess and minimise the environmental impacts of approval, based on a managerial (December 2006)
investment projects assessment carried out by an
- Define emergency plans for the prevention and containment independent, third-party expert
of accidental damage to the environment, health and safety accredited by the Confederation
StEP Initiative Officially launched

A UN initiative to improve the recycling of electronic waste
on 7 March 2007
V
7.3 Collected economic data
Table 19. Collected economic data.

N° Description (material, service, etc.) Costs Units Source Comments
1 Copper LME minus 8-9% - Mac//Z According to Sorec (CH): minus 10-20%, thus
calculating defensively with minus 20%
2 Aluminum LME minus 10% - Mac//Z
4 Iron (billet) Price - 50% - Mac//Z Prix de la billette - 50% (LME acier)
(LME)
5 Shipping 6m-container from Casablanca to Barcelona 120 €/Container Mac//Z Independent of the weight
6 Shipping 6m-container from Casablanca to Belgium 180-200 €/Container Mac//Z
7 Shipping 6m-container from Casablanca to Hamburg 250 €/Container Mac//Z
8 Shipping 6m-container from Casablanca to 350 $/Container Mac//Z
Chennai/India
9 Shipping 6m-container from Casablanca to 900 $/Container Mac//Z Lamdouar: One have to add 3000 MAD for
Ningbo/China (Shanghai) transport + "mise en FOB" (Free on Board)
10 Transport Mac//Z - Casa Port + Mise à FOB ~ 3000 MAD/Container Mac//Z
11 Transport Lorry Container from Mac//Z (Skhirat) to 2000 MAD/Container Mac//Z 1500 MAD for the lorry, plus 500 MAD for the
Casablanca transition
12 Transport Lorry from Mac//Z (Skhirat) to Casablanca 1500 MAD/Lorry Mac//Z
13 Transport Lorry 90 km from port to final destination in 500 €/Container Mac//Z
Spain
14 Small cables, % of copper in cables (e.g. WEEE) 50-60 % Mac//Z
15 Transport Casablanca - Berrechid, formal 1200 MAD/tour Valdeme 4 t DEEE; => ~0.3 MAD/kg
16 Transport Casablanca - Berrechid, informal 0.15 - 0.2 MAD/kg Valdeme
17 Scrap Iron, average price 2010 2 MAD/kg Valdeme Baudet: "Le prix moyen du fer sur l’année se
situe autour de 2 dhs / kg et le fer issue des
DEEE se paye à environ 50% de cette valeur
de par sa qualité très moyenne"
18 Minimal Wage 2200 MAD/month Valdeme 2200 brut, 2000 net (Baudte: souvent les
salaires d'un ouvrier sans formation ne sont
pas déclaré, alors on ne paye que 1500 MAD;
Valdeme paye 2500 dh + mutuelle)
19 Wage technician 4800 MAD/month Valdeme
20 Wage acquisition manager 13000 MAD/month Valdeme
21 Wage staff manager (personnel manager) 12000 MAD/month Valdeme Baudet: necessary if you have 30 or more
employees; can be cumulated with other
responsibilites
VI

22 Wage warehouse manager (warehouse keeper) 5000-6000 MAD/month Valdeme
23 Wage secretary 2500-3500 MAD/month Valdeme Baudet: with accountancy and good french
3500, otherwise 2500 MAD
24 Wage driver 3500 MAD/month
25 Income taxes 40% M. Chaoui "Impôts sur le revenu"
26 Taxes for the company (depending on product) ~20% M. Chaoui "Impôts société"
28 CRT monitor, purchase price by IVSEP to scavengers 0.5-1.5 MAD/kg IVSEP/Chaoui Depending on CRT quality (copper already
removed, etc.)
29 (W)EEE, purchase price by IVSEP to scavengers 2-2.5 MAD/kg IVSEP/Chaoui PCs, printer, copying machines, etc.
30 (W)EEE, purchase price by IVESP to Semi-Wholesaler 3-3.5 MAD/kg IVSEP/Chaoui
31 (W)EEE, purchase price by IVSEP to Wholesaler 4-4.5 MAD/kg IVSEP/Chaoui
32 Lot of land, acquisition price in industrial zone in Fes 700-750 MAD/m2 ENIM/Chaoui
(Ain Cheguague)
33 Lot of land, acquisition price in industrial zone in Rabat 250 MAD/m2 ENIM/Chaoui
with state subsidy (Ain Aouda )
34 Lot of land, acquisition price in industrial zone in 900 MAD/m2 ENIM/Chaoui
Casablanca without state subsidy
35 Storage depot, 800m2, rental price in industrial zone in 7500 MAD/month ENIM/Chaoui
Casablanca (Tit Mellil)
36 Lot of land, rental price in industrial zone in 5 MAD/m2*month ENIM/Chaoui
Casablanca (Bouskoura)
37 Lot of land, acquisition price in Darbouazza zone 900-1000 MAD/m2 GIZ/Mountassir
(Greater Casablanca)
38 Lot of land, acquisition price in Bouskoura zone 1000-1200 MAD/m2 GIZ/Mountassir
(Greater Casablanca)
39 Storage depot, rent in Bouskoura zone (Greater 20 MAD/m2*month GIZ/Mountassir
Casablanca)
40 Déchets ménagers, mise à la décharge 50 MAD/t Chaoui Info par mail 27.10. Chaoui: "L’établissement
d’une convention cadre entre l’entité concerné
(industriel), la commune et la société
délégataire est nécessaire pour pouvoir
procéder à cette mise en décharge des
déchets"
41 Hard disc, purchase price IVSEP => scavenger 50-60 MAD/unit IVSEP
42 Cables, no treatment 3 MAD/kg IVSEP / IS
43 Cables, burnt 30 MAD/kg IVSEP / IS
VII

44 Cables, no treatment, price agreed upon IS - IVSEP ~25 MAD/kg IVSEP / IS
45 Plastic export to China (all types - with and without 0 MAD/t MBA (Chris The price strongly depends on the quality and
FR), to MBA Guangzhou Sluik) type of plastic; as far as composition unknown,
set costs to 0. (=> send a sample container to
MBA China to fix the price)
46 CRT-End-Processing GRIAG, Total
47 GRIAG, tube with metal scrap 60 €/t Griag For < 100 t/month
inside
48 GRIAG, cullets without metal 75 €/t Griag For < 100 t/month
scrap, without washing
49 GRIAG, cullets without metal less than 75 €/t Griag For < 100 t/month
scrap, with washing
50 Transport Hamburg - GRIAG 450 €/Container Zippel Website:
(Zippel) http://212.223.160.147/home/home.aspx
51 Shipping Morocco - Hamburg 250 €/Container Mac//Z
52 Transport to Port Casablanca 2000 MAD/Container Mac//Z Refers to distance Skhirat (Mac//Z) - Casa Port
53 Urban transport, 8 tons, Casa-Casa, 1 driver + 4 2300 MAD/day + 20% Al Jisr Price without tax (VAT ~20%); El Boudrari (Al
workers tax Jisr): "comme nous collectons des déchets
nous n'assurons pas la marchandise mais si la
marchandise est assurée ça devient plus cher."
54 Urban transport, 16 tons, Casa-Casa, 1 driver + 4 2800 MAD/day + 20% Al Jisr Price without tax (VAT ~20%); El Boudrari (Al
workers tax Jisr): "comme nous collectons des déchets
nous n'assurons pas la marchandise mais si la
marchandise est assurée ça devient plus cher."
55 Minimal Wage Morocco (SMIG), per hour 10.64 MAD/hour Al Jisr
56 Minimal Wage Morocco (SMIG), per month ~2200 MAD/month Al Jisr Assumption: 5 days of work/week (legally max.
44 hours/week)
57 Minimal Wage Morocco (SMIG), per month (all costs ~2500 MAD/month Al Jisr
included)
58 Minimal Lot Size, PWB low-grade, Umicore 8 t Umicore 1 full 20' container
59 Minimal Lot Size, PWB medium-grade, Umicore 7 t Umicore 7t, ultimate minimum lot size 5 t
60 Minimal Lot Size, PWB high-grade, Umicore 5 t Umicore Very high grade (mobile phones): 2t
61 Transport Port Antwerpen => Umicore 0 $ Umicore Steven Art: "on behalf of Umicore"
62 NiMH- and Li-Ion Batterys, Umicore see price grid Umicore
63 Hg-Lamps, Recilec, Sevilla, Spain 800-850 €/t Recilec Remove as many parts as possible (sockets,
etc.) in order to reduce costs
64 CRT monitor, Recilec, Sevilla, Spain 250 €/t Recilec They accept whole monitors, too
VIII
7.4 Material Composition for Model
CRT LCD Mobile

Fraction PC/Server monitor monitor Laptop Printer Phones CRT TV LCD TV Audio Video
Copper 0.03% 7.00% 0.65% 1.50% 3.50% 3.00% 0.75% 3.00% 3.00%
Aluminum 4.92% 2.00% 3.10% 3.70% 0.30% 2.00% 3.50% 0.80% 1.50%
Iron 75.06% 10.00% 35.25% 29.80% 36.20% 8.00% 12.00% 39.75% 36.00% 60.00%
Brass 0.02%
PWB high grade 8.50% 35.00% 11.00%
PWB medium grade 8.57% 6.50% 10.00%
PWB low grade 1.31% 8.00% 7.00% 10.50% 15.00%
Glass (e.g. LCD) 11.00%
CRT glass 60.00% 52.00%
Plastics 5.80% 13.00% 18.50% 14.50% 46.00% 44.00% 23.00% 18.50% 43.00% 17.00%
Cables 2.75% 2.50% 1.00% 3.00% 1.50%
Residue (= waste) 1.54% 0.00% 31.50% 43.00% 1.00% 0.00% 3.00% 25.00% 6.70% 3.50%
Toner 1.00%
LCD module 28.50% 19.50% 21.00%
Battery 0.02% 19.50%
Transformers 3.00%
Motor 0.50%
Capacitor 0.51%
Metal-plastic mix 0.51%
Waste 3.00% 4.00% 4.00% 6.70% 3.50%
Total 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
Indicated weight [kg] 9.9 14.1 4.3 3.5 6.5 0.1 31.6 15 5 4.2
Oguchi, Oguchi,
[Own (Laffely [Own (Laffely Zhu, J 2010/ [Own 2010/ [Own
Source: data] 2007) data] [Own data] 2007) [Own data] Bejing [Own data] data] data]
[Own data]: Data from Empa/Swico-Recycling
IX
7.5 Assumptions for Appliance Composition
Generally, the appliance composition which is applied in the model is based on data from GIZ
(2010). Further assumptions are:
LCD-share (TVs & PCs) 20% of total monitors, by units (reference scenario)
Laptop share 20% of total PCs, by units (reference scenario)
Printer share 50% of total PCs & laptops, by units (reference scenario)
Volume audio devices 5’000 t/year (2008)

Estimation based on GIZ (2010) and Swico (2008)
Volume video devices 1’500 t/year (2008)

Estimation based on GIZ (2010) and Swico (2008)

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Current Situation and Economic

Feasibility of e-Waste Recycling

Fabian Blaser & Mathias Schluep

4.11.2010 Ø 2010 Ø 2008 Ø 2004-2008 Ø 2004

Cost/Benefit [in 1'000 MAD]

Dependency of business performance on the amount of

2 Framework Conditions ............................................................................................... 4

3 Model Development .................................................................................................. 28

4 Model Results ........................................................................................................... 45

2.1 Legal Background

2.1.1 Environmental Regulations

Law N° 12-03 on environmental impact studies (enacted on 12 May 2003)

2.1.2 Transportation Restrictions

2.1.3 Health & Safety Regulations

2.1.4 International Agreements

2.2 Required Standards by HP

2.2.1 Reuse, Resale, or Donation of Whole Units, Parts, or Components

2.2.2 Landfill Avoidance and Corresponding Approved Dispositions

recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner compliant with applicable

2.2.3 Information Security

With respect to international transportation, HP (2008a) stipulates:

2.2.5 Health & Safety

Moroccan Regulation HP Standards

--- (no regulation found)  “Emergency preparedness: emergency

 The utilization of products and substances  “Industrial hygiene: worker exposure to

--- (no regulation found)  “Physically demanding work: worker

 It is prohibited to purchase or rent machines  “Machine Safeguarding: production and

2.2.6 Other Specifications

2.3 Recycler and Refiner

Objective of the treatment step Potential treatment alternatives

High collection rate (Several collection schemes possible; not considered as a

Depollution Manual dismantling/sorting

Separation of material fractions Manual dismantling/sorting

Recovery of material fractions Plastic recycler

Removal of hazardous substances Incineration with off-gas control

Table 1. Potential recycling procedures/technologies.

2.3.1 National e-Waste Recycler

No solution available currently

Table 2. Current Moroccan treatment options for e-waste fractions.

2.3.1.1 e-Waste Recycler

Figure 2. Metal scrap depot, Valdeme.

Figure 1. e-Waste dismantling workplace,

Figure 3. Metal scrap at Valdeme.

Figure 4. Dismantling at Al Jisr. Figure 5. Dismantling facility of Al Jisr.

Company Treated fractions

SONASID18 Ferrous metals

Univers acier Ferrous metals

Mafoder19 Ferrous metals

Tube et Profil Ferrous metals

Maghreb Steel20 Ferrous metals

Mac//Z (see below) Copper, brass (wholesaler for further metals)

SFPZ21 Lead glass (lead smelter)

Table 3. National refiner, adapted from Rochat and Laissaoui (2008).

In order to supply the future final facility with a

1‘800 MAD ≈ 160 €, exchange rate from 4.11.2010

2.3.1.3 Informal Recycler

In the informal sector several levels of stakeholders have to be distinguished.

2.3.2 International Recycler and Refiner

2.3.2.1 Integrated Metal Smelters

Company Country Description

2.4.1 Labour Costs

2.4.2 Rental Costs

2.4.3 Commodity Prices (incl. PWB and battery prices)