Metallurgical restrictions for WEEE recycling – consequences for the product design

This lecture discusses facets of the article below.

Metals are an essential and critical component of today’s society: a moment’s reflection on their ubiquitous presence in virtually all energy and material production processes is enough to confirm this. Metals play a key role in Enabling Sustainability through societies various high-tech applications. However, the resources of our planet are limited, as is the strain to which we can subject it in terms of emissions, pollution, and disposal of waste. For these reasons, finding ways to lower the environmental footprint of our collective existence and therefore lowering greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate climate change is a vital priority ([1], [2]). The maximization of resource efficiency [3] is the principal theme of this contribution. It will be shown in depth the detail that is required to systemically fully understand resource efficiency in the context of material use, illustrating this by example of E-waste recycling. The opportunities and limits of recycling are discussed with a specific emphasis on the physics and related economics of recycling. Through this Design for Resource Efficiency is elaborated on. In support of this, the detailed data that are required, the technological understanding and design rules are among others implicitly highlighted that impact on resource efficiency. Specifically the understanding of Product-Centric recycling is highlighted setting it apart from the usual Material-Centric recycling approaches (which focus more on bulk materials) and therefore inherently limit especially the maximal recovery of technologically critical elements - these limitations will be discussed.