Page 16 - Implementation of ITU-T international standards for sustainable management of waste electrical and electronic equipment: The path to a circular economy in Costa Rica

Glossary

Authorized manager: Natural or legal person, public or private, in charge of the entire or
partial management of wastes and authorized by the provisions of Law Nr. 8839 “Integral Waste
Management” and its regulations (Law 8839, 2010).

Basic metal: According to the Global E-waste Observatory - 2020: Quantities, flows and the
circular economy potential, iron (Fe), aluminium (Al) and tin (Sn).

Compliance Units: Legal entity made up of one or more producers, responsible for establishing
the mechanisms and actions that guarantee the integral management of their waste and its
sustainability (Executive Decree 38272, 2014).

Extended Producer Responsibility: Producers and importers have responsibility for the product
during its entire life cycle, including the post-industrial and post-consumer phases. For the
purposes of Law 8839, this principle will only apply to special handling waste (Law 8839, 2010).

Note: The definition included in Recommendation ITU-T L.1031 is the following:

“A policy principle to promote total life cycle environmental improvements of product systems
by extending the responsibility of the manufactures of the product to various parts of the entire
life cycle of the product and especially to the take-back, recycling, and final disposal of the
product.” (ITU, 2021)

Fractions: Coarse fractions are the internal and external components of WEEE, inter alia printed
circuit boards, cables, liquid crystal glass and plastic. Fine fractions are the elements, metals, or
materials that can be recovered, inter alia copper, iron, gold, silver and lead.

Heavy metal: Metals with a density greater than five. Some of them are toxic, e.g., mercury (Hg),
cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), thallium (Tl) and lead (Pb). (ITU, 2020)

Key performance indicators: Indicators that provide a set of reliable, relevant, objective, and
comparable indices to measure progress towards achieving a goal, objective, or level of service.
(International Telecommunication Union, 2021)

Mass flow diagram: Graphical representation of flows of electrical and electronic wastes and
their circulation between different stakeholders. In turn, production and consumption (ITU,
2021)

Precious metal: According to the document Global E-waste Observatory - 2020: Quantities,
flows and circular economy potential, gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), platinum (Pt), palladium
(Pd), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir) and osmium (Os) are considered precious metals
present in EEE. (Forti, Baldé, Kuerh, & Bel, 2020)

Recovery target: Refers to the operational management of an e-waste recovery function,
expressed as the quantity recovered in a period. (Executive Decree 35933, 2010)
Recycler or recycler by trade: People engaged in the informal collection of recoverable solid
waste for further sale. They are among the key players in the country's recovery and separation
chain. (Sanabria, 2020)

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