I would recommend using the same method as for any material flow analysis: the MFA method by Brunner and Rechberger (2003). 

You can also find case studies for mobile phones, computers, etc. in journal such as Waste Management, Journal of Industrial Ecology and Journal of Cleaner Production. They may be using different methods specific to electronic products relevant for you. For instance: 

• Liu et al. 2006. Generation amount prediction and material flow analysis of electronic waste: A case study in Beijing, China. Waste Management and Research 24(5):434-445.
• Steubing et al. 2010. Assessing computer waste generation in Chile using material flow analysis. Waste Management 30(3):473–482.
• Lam et al. 2013. Linking Material Flow Analysis with Environmental Impact Potential: Dynamic Technology Transition Effects on Projected E-waste in the United States. Journal of Industrial Ecology 17(2):299–309.

Dear Dino,

to my knowledge MFA applied to studies on e-waste management is to estimate the flow of e-waste or used electronics to be considered in your problem.

The following paper reports a review on the several application of analysis tools (e.g., LCA, MFA) adopted several studies on e-waste management. It confirms the idea that I had on the use of MFA, but I am pretty sure you'll find more hints on that.

Peeranart Kiddee, Ravi Naidu, Ming H. Wong, Electronic waste management approaches: An overview, Waste Management, Volume 33, Issue 5, May 2013, Pages 1237-1250, ISSN 0956-053X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2013.01.006.

Best wishes

Ilaria

Hi Dino,

MFA is good tool to understand the material flows in a system and gather relevant data and connect the data in a proper way. Maybe the work of Perrine Chancerel is of any help for you. She investigated different substances in small WEEE.

http://www.user.tu-berlin.de/perrine.chancerel/

Regards, Asja

As the other commenters have noted, MFA is often used to trace the flows of e-waste at various scales.  If provides information that can often indicate movement of e-waste -- leakages, gaps -- in waste management systems that are otherwise undetected. It can also be used to assess the capacity of waste management systems to handle future flows.  See, for example,

Lam, C. W., S.-R. Lim, and J. M. Schoenung. 2013. Linking Material Flow Analysis with Environmental Impact Potential: Dynamic Technology Transition Effects on Projected E-waste in the U.S. Journal of Industrial Ecology 17(2): 299-309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00513.x.

MFA can be conducted at the product scale or at the substance scale (substance flow analysis, SFA).  For a related approach using input-output techniques, see

Leigh, N. G., T. Choi, and N. Z. Hoelzel. 2012. New Insights into Electronic Waste Recycling in Metropolitan Areas. Journal of Industrial Ecology 16(6): 940-950. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00525.x.

Many good answers already, but I guess it deserves mentioning that MFA:s can be engaged with differently dependent on what one is interested in assessing, the kind of data available and the data collection possibilities etc.

The more common approach (and most of the work cited above to my knowledge) is based on top down data collection, i.e. where the basic principle is ”inflows equals outflows” and comparisons are made between the input flows of natural resources, the internal flows of materials inside a chosen geographical context and the output flows of waste and emissions. Here you go about using flowcharts, boxes and arrows and so on, and would find numbers such as trade statistics and fact sheets from metal associations useful. 

The other way to collect data would be bottom-up,which relies on making inventories of all the products that contain the material in question in a certain area at a given moment in time. Here you would find census data useful. Our research team have used this to assess hibernating infrastructure stocks underneath cities (which might be characterized as e-waste), and for example, if you are interested in assessing e-waste stocks in household attics, drawers and car garages, you might send out a larger quantitative survey.

Wallsten, B., Carlsson, A., Frändegård, P., Krook, J., Svanström, S. (2013a) ”To Prospect an Urban Mine: Assessing the Metal Recovery Potential of Infrastructure ‘Cold Spots’ in Norrköping, Sweden”, Journal of Cleaner Production 55 103-111.

Now in practice, you'll find that these two methods might very well be mixed and used to accompany one another, or for triangulation purposes, c.f.: 

Zeltner, C., Bader, H-P., Scheidegger, R., Baccini, P. (1999) ”Sustainable metal management exemplified by copper in the USA”, Regional Environ Change 1 31-45.

Aside of the already mentioned handbook of Brunner and Rechberger above, there is also this one to go for: 

Graedel, T.E., and Allenby, B.R. (2010) Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall).

For a good overview, with comments on the merits of different approaches and how they rely on different kinds of data at hand, see:

Chen, W., and Graedel, T.E. (2012) ”Anthropogenic Cycles of the Elements: A Critical Review”, Environmental Science & Technology 46 8574-8586.

Dear Dino

You could find information on your topic on this site (http://ecoinfo.cnrs.fr/). It is in French (sorry) but it is a national work on the environmental impacts of the ICT n general (WEEE are on topic) leaded by the French National Research Center (CNRS). I think you will find MFA analysis and some products data.

Dear Dino,

If you need Material Flow Analysis also from the view of Inhouse Logistics or Production the following Literature can serve as a good overview. These are widely used especially in german speaking countries.

Conference Paper Efficient approach in modifying material flow systems.