Brazilian Journals Publicações de Periódicos e Editora Ltda.
Abstract
Maintaining the human lifestyle has proved unsustainable The production of consumer goods to meet the demands of contemporary society requires exploitation of natural resources, often non-renewable (gas, oil, for example). Electronic devices, which normally present short lifespans and whose demand only tends to grow, are the main reason why those raw materials are exploited, by means of different technologies and used for different purposes: production of wires, cables, micro-integrated circuits, smartphone casings, laptops etc. The speed at which products become obsolete further aggravates problems regarding the environment, which becomes the destination of wastes that are generated and inadequately disposed in most cases. In this sense, urban prospecting techniques can serve as a means of attenuating the negative impact that anthropic products cause to the environment. The present research aims to address some activities that are already used and based on the concept of urban mining, where the waste generated by the cities becomes an important sources for recovery of components and / or elements of high economic value added (EVA), to be reintroduced in the productive chain