Blog written by Raúl Campoy, Chemical Manager at Tatuine.
Nowadays and according to the current demand situation of critical raw materials to make electric and electronic components, such as LED-lights, automotive chips or PCBs in general, recovery them of WEEEs is indispensable. In this way, dependence of countries outside the European Union can be avoided, this is known as Urban Mining. In addition, natural resources which supply these materials are finite and, in the most cases, extraction involves a great environmental impact, social damages and negative health consequences for workers of mine sites, usually placed in Africa or Asia.
The eco-design of electronic equipment can contribute to the reduction of electronic waste and the optimization of recycling. Furthermore, it is a fundamental tool to reduce the environmental impact of these devices and promote environmental sustainability. Some of the eco-design strategies are:
- Design for disassembly: Electronic equipment must be designed in such a way that its components can be easily disassembled and separated for subsequent recycling.
- Desing for durability: Electronic equipment should be designed to have a longer useful life, thereby reducing the amount of electronic waste generated.
- Design for energy efficiency: Electronic equipment should be designed to consume less energy, thus reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with its use.
- Design for reuse: Electronic equipment should be designed to be reused rather than discarded after its useful life. (1)
In the design, production, life and recycling of devices, must be taken into account the eco-design concept. In this way, increase recyclability of WEEEs is achieved, with an extraction a higher number of CRM and as well as larger amount each.
One of the most important things to reach a high recyclability index is how the electrical and electronical devices are made to facilitate their disassembly and recycling. It´s necessary a direct contact between the manufacturer and the recycler, due to the first step to recycling WEEEs is a manual dismantling, therefore, it´s necessary a good access to every piece with common tools.
Regarding the PCBs, the most common method to obtain CRW involve the total treatment of the board, discarding like slag non-metallic components after a casting process to obtain the metal fraction for recycling. A high energy consumption is required in this process.
On the other hand, there are thin layers of copper and fiberglass inside the board with components welded outside. Make easy the previously extraction of components could be an attractive alternative of eco-design for facilitate recycling decreasing the amount of material to process, in this way the board would not have to cast. Several examples:
- An alternative fixing to the tin welding of the components that allows to be separated them easily from the board.
- To use different materials than fiberglass that may be dissolved to minimize the number of plastics to cast.
- To use easily identifiable components by artificial intelligence and placed in the board so that they can be removed by a robotic system selectively. This is an interesting part of REDOL.
We can see that at the same time as an effective eco-design, there must be a development of recycling technologies, therefore, the importance of constant and proactive communication between all the actors involved is shown, with the ultimate goal of increasing the recyclability of products.
Therefore, we can talk about a direct relationship between ECO-DESIGN and RECYCLABILITY, so the recycling does not begin when a device stop being useful to us and we throw it away, but at the same moment in which its idea is conceived.
Blog written by Raúl Campoy, Chemical Manager at Tatuine.
