Transition pathway towards more sustainable waste management practices for end-of-life reverse osmosis membranes: Challenges and opportunities in Brazil

Desalination using reverse osmosis (RO) elements is increasing worldwide. In addition to creating technical alternatives to extend their life-cycle, it is also important to assess how circular economy can be encouraged considering the role of the involved stakeholders. To help address this issue, this work proposed a transition pathway towards more sustainable waste management scenarios. It was built using a three-step methodology whose highlight was to use life-cycle assessment results to classify the level of institutional and sustainable disruption of three disposure options (reuse/chemical conversion/recycling of materials). Once built, a system-level perspective was used to explore potential win, losses, and conflicts from the actors involved in the waste chain. It was seen that the current scenario follows a linear take-make-disposal structure and there is a need to promote actors that will actually perform direct reuse and chemical conversion of the membranes. However, even if these actors are encouraged, they might encounter a resistance of business-as-usual, since there is no legal restriction for landfill disposal. In addition, institutional framework needs to be addressed to avoid direct competition and promote partnership with these and other actors in the waste chain.