Simulation of the circular economy proposal: analysis of printer remanufacture scenarios

Abstract

Computational devices, such as printers, usually have a predetermined lifetime and are discarded when they stop working, generating large amounts of electronic waste. Circular Economy, on the other hand, proposes an alternative to the linear model of extraction, transformation and disposal applied in most organizations, starting from the replacement of materials in the production chains without loss of quality in this process. The research objective is to develop and experiment with models to analyze the impact of the remanufacturing of printers from a higher education institution. This article defends the remanufacturing of printers as a way to reduce both the amount of electronic waste discarded and the costs of purchasing new equipment. A computational model was built and, based on the Systems Dynamics approach, scenarios were proposed to simulate the behavior over 10 years. Analyzing data from a Federal Institution of Higher Education, it was found that the remanufacturing of printers can reduce the volume of electronic waste generated by 2.5 times, and achieve financial savings of around 37%.