Quantitative and Qualitative Study on Electric and Electronic Waste (E-waste) and Economic Evaluation of Their Collection and Recycling by Using the Cost-benefit Model (CBA): A Case Study in Dezful City, 2017

Introduction: Due to the rapid development of technology and growth of economic activities in recent years, the use of electrical and electronic devices has increased dramatically, which is contributed to the proliferation of waste generated by these ewaste (Electric and Electronic waste) products. Materials and Methods: In this study, the status of ewaste in Dezful city in 2017 was studied. Accordingly, the types and amount of ewaste in residential and commercialadministrative areas were identified, and it was found that the amount of ewaste produced in these areas was totally about 1291 tons and the annual per capita of each family in residential areas was 15 plusmn; 0.5 and for each unit in administrativecommercial areas was 180 plusmn; 5. Then, with the breakdown and identification of their valuable components (gold, silver, copper, etc.) the financial value of each gram of these components was also calculated and the obtained information was entered to Excel software. Results: By using the MATLAB software, the benefits of retrieving valuable components extracted from ewaste in residential and administrativecommercial areas, as well as the costs of recycling and collecting ewaste were calculated individually. Eventually, the annual benefits of recycling and collecting ewaste in Dezful were $ 1091338 and their annual costs were $ 615,556, resulting in NPV (Net Present Value) calculated $ 475,782 annually. Conclusion: Therefore, based on the costbenefit model (CBA), it was shown that the NPV is positive, which indicates that ewaste recycling and collection is economically feasible.