Adopting Lead-Free Electronics: Policy Differences and Knowledge Gaps

For more than a decade, the use of lead (Pb) in electronics has been controversial: Indeed, its toxic effects are well documented, whereas relatively little is known about proposed alternative materials. As the quantity of electronic and electrical waste (e‐waste) increases, legislative initiatives and corporate marketing strategies are driving a reduction in the use of some toxic substances in electronics. This article argues that the primacy of legislation over engineering and economics may result in selecting undesirable replacement materials for Pb because of overlooked knowledge gaps. These gaps include the need for: assessments of the effects of changes in policy on the flow of e‐waste across state and national boundaries; further reliability testing of alternative solder alloys; further toxicology and environmental impact studies for high environmental loading of the alternative solders (and their metal components); improved risk assessment methodologies that can capture complexities such as changes in waste management practices, in electronic product design, and in rate of product obsolescence; carefully executed allocation methods when evaluating the impact of raw material extraction; and in‐depth risk assessment of alternative end‐of‐life (EOL) options. The resulting environmental and human health consequences may be exacerbated by policy differences across political boundaries. To address this conundrum, legislation and policies dealing with Pb in electronics are first reviewed. A discussion of the current state of knowledge on alternative solder materials relative to product design, environmental performance, and risk assessment follows. Previous studies are reviewed, and consistent with their results, this analysis finds that there is great uncertainty in the trade‐offs between Pb‐based solders and proposed replacements. Bridging policy and knowledge gaps will require increased international cooperation on materials use, product market coverage, and e‐waste EOL management.     

India's E‐Waste Rules and Their Impact on E‐Waste Management Practices: A Case Study

India, like many other developed and developing countries, has adopted an extended producer responsibility (EPR) approach for electronic waste (e‐waste) management under its E‐waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. Under these rules, producers have been made responsible for setting up collection centers of e‐waste and financing and organizing a system for environmentally sound management of e‐waste. In this article, we use the implementation of these rules in Ahmedabad in western India as a case study to conduct a critical analysis of the implementation of India's Rules. Interviews of main stakeholder groups, including a sample of regulated commercial establishments, regulatory agencies enforcing the Rules, informal actors involved in waste collection and handling, as well as publicly available information on the implementation constitute data for our case study. Our results indicate that while there has been an increase in the formal waste processing capacity after the implementation of the Rules, only 5% to 15% of the total waste generated is likely channeled through formal processing facilities. While the EPR regulation forced the producers to take action on a few relatively inexpensive aspects of the Rules, the collection and recycling system has not been made convenient for the consumers to deposit e‐waste in formal collection and recycling centers. Based on our findings, we argue that Indian EPR regulation should go beyond simple take‐back mandates and consider implementing other policy instruments such as a deposit‐refund system. An important implication for developing countries is the need for careful attention to instrument choice and design within EPR regulations.     

A Case Discussion on Market‐Based Extended Producer Responsibility: The Minnesota Electronics Recycling Act

In this article, we analyze the Minnesota Electronics Recycling Act to explore the benefits and potential drawbacks of a market‐based extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation implementation with operational flexibility for manufacturers. Based on publicly available reports and stakeholder interviews, we find that the Minnesota Act attains two key goals of market‐based EPR (i.e., higher cost efficiencies and substantial landfill diversion); however, this may come at the expense of selective collection and recycling, an increased burden on local governments, and a loss of balance in contractual power between stakeholders. We observe that these concerns arise because of specific flexibility provisions afforded to manufacturers that allow them to operationalize their EPR compliance with a cost‐efficiency focus. Thus, we conclude that EPR goals must be carefully translated into operating rules in order to achieve goals while avoiding unintended consequences.     

Linking Material Flow Analysis with Environmental Impact Potential

Technology transition can have significant implications on the evolution of environmental impact potential of disposed electronics over time. Considering technology transition, we quantify the temporal behavior of ecological and human health impact potential from select heavy metals in electronic waste (e‐waste). The case study analyzes product substitution effects in two electronic cohorts from the U.S. market: (1) computers (laptops substituting for desktops) and (2) televisions (flat‐panel liquid crystal displays [LCDs] and plasma displays substituting for cathode‐ray tubes [CRTs]). Quantities of end‐of‐life (EoL) units to year 2030 are forecasted by the unique combination of dynamic material flow analysis, logistic trend analysis, and product lifespan calibration methods. Metal content from EoL units are assessed via a pathway and effect model using USETox? characterization factors to determine the toxicity potential attributed to heavy metal releases into different media (e.g., air, water, and soil) as an indicator of environmental burden. Results show high impact materials such as lead, nickel, and zinc cause changes in human health toxicity potential and copper causes changes in ecological toxicity potential. Effects of dematerialization, such as reduced metal content in laptops over desktops, provide some positive benefits in toxicity potential per product. However, from a market perspective, emerging e‐waste quantities created by increasing per capita penetration rates of electronics and increasing population will offset gains in environmental performance at the product level. The resulting analysis provides guidance on the timing expected for emerging EoL units and an indication of high impact potential materials requiring pollution prevention as product substitution occurs.     

Extended Producer Responsibility in the United States

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach that requires manufacturers to finance the costs of recycling or safely disposing of products consumers no longer want. This article describes the evolution of EPR policies in the United States, focusing on the role of states as policy actors. For their part, federal lawmakers have not embraced EPR policies except to remove some barriers to state‐level initiatives. In the two‐decade period from 1991 to 2011, U.S. states enacted more than 70 EPR laws. In addition, manufacturers have implemented voluntary programs to collect and recycle products, but those efforts have proven largely ineffective in capturing significant quantities of waste products. With the help of new coalitions of diverse interest groups, recently states have renewed efforts to establish effective EPR programs, enacting 40 laws in the period 2008–2011. Several state initiatives suggest a more promising future for EPR.     

Strategic Responses to Environmental Regulation in the U.K. Automotive Sector: The European Union End-of-Life Vehicle Directive and the Porter Hypothesis

As of 1 January 2006 all automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and component manufacturers operating within the European Union will need to comply with the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (referred to hereafter as the EU ELV Directive). The EU ELV Directive compels all OEMs to take back and dismantle all motor vehicles for domestic use at the end of their useful lives. Each component part will then be either reused or recycled. To this end, the ultimate goal of the EU ELV Directive is that all motor vehicles for domestic use will have a reuse or recyclable content of 85% at the end of their useful lives, moving toward 95% by 2015. The burden of the EU ELV Directive falls on both the OEMs and their component manufacturers, forcing them to innovate and "design for disassembly." This being the case, it offers a unique real world example with which to test the Porter Hypothesis. Porter asserts that strict, correctly formulated environmental regulation can offer a firm secondary benefits through improved product design and the reduction of waste. This in turn allows the firm to offset the cost of compliance. Because the EU ELV Directive has been fashioned to force firms into a process of innovation and redesign, the magnitude of these so-called offsets can be judged. This article employs Rugman and Verbeke's 1998 strategic matrix of firm response to environmental regulation to examine qualitative details of the strategic response of automotive component manufacturers and OEMs in the United Kingdom to the demands of the directive to judge the volume of offsets generated. This analysis shows no support for the Porter Hypothesis and challenges the assumptions of Rugman and Verbeke's model.     

Charging up Battery Recycling Policies: Extended Producer Responsibility for Single‐Use Batteries in the European Union,Canada, and the United States

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies have proven effective at raising consumer awareness, expanding waste collection infrastructure, and shifting costs of end‐of‐life (EOL) management from municipalities to stewardship organizations. Yet, such policies have been less successful in advancing waste management programs that ensure a net environmental benefit. This article analyzes how EPR policies for single‐use batteries in the European Union (EU), Canada, and the United States address the environmental costs and benefits of EOL management. Considering these EPR policies is instructive, because single‐use batteries have high collection costs and are of relatively low economic value for waste processors. Without deliberate planning, the environmental burdens of collecting and recycling such batteries may exceed the benefits. This article considers how EPR policies for single‐use batteries integrate performance requirements such as collection rates, recycling efficiencies, and best available techniques. It argues that for such policies to be effective, they need to be extended to address waste collection practices, the life cycle consequences of EOL management, and the quality of recovered materials. Such strategies are relevant to EPR policies for other products with marginal secondary value, including some textiles, plastics, and other types of electronic waste.     

Flows of Chemical Risk Information in the Consumer Paint Product Chain

In this study the flows of chemical risk information for paint as a consumer product were investigated from a product chain perspective. The main method of research involved semi‐structured interviews with Swedish manufacturers of paint and chemicals. In addition, retailers and consumers were interviewed. The flows of chemical risk information between actors within (e.g., manufacturers, retailers, and consumers) and outside (e.g., industry associations and regulators) the paint product chain are described. Because the European chemical legislation REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of CHemicals) plays a large role in the management of chemical risk information at companies, some consequences of REACH on actors in the paint product chain are described. Examples of such consequences are that importing of chemicals from non–European Union (EU) countries may be discouraged and that some low‐volume chemicals may no longer be produced. However, manufacturers do not yet see these consequences as impediments to innovation. The results of this work show that chemical risk information is most comprehensive during the manufacturing steps of the product chain. This is due not only to tradition and industry initiatives, but also to REACH and other legislation. The results also illustrate the need for evaluation of how chemical risk information is used in different contexts and the importance of directing the right information at the right target group. Following legislative development, more specialized information is required in the safety data sheet (SDS), and because of this many manufacturers find it necessary to create simplified safety sheets that make the most pertinent safety and hazard information easily accessible to individuals that handle the chemicals in their factories. The study found that in creating the simplified safety sheets, the content and use of chemical risk information is evaluated and adjusted for presentation to this particular target group. It is evident that the Swedish Paint and Printing Ink Makers Association plays an important role in the interpretation of legal requirements and even in agreements for providing information that exceeds legal requirements.     

From Legal Transplants to Sustainable Transition

Extended producer responsibility (EPR), which assigns significant responsibility to producers to take back their end‐of‐life products to create incentives for redesign of products with lower life cycle environmental impacts, has come to a crossroad facing a trade‐off between the original innovation‐oriented regime design and the cost‐efficiency challenges in practice. This is particularly true in its implementation in non‐Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) countries as they are trying to transplant the “best practices” from OECD countries, for there is increasing skepticism as to whether EPR is suitable for developing countries at all. As an important producer of electronic products and destination of electronic waste (e‐waste) flows in the world, China has been expected to play a vital role in the evolution of global governance based on the idea of EPR, either to create new ways for producers to perform their end‐of‐life strategies, or to reshape the mode of production and consumption with its fast‐growing market. However, the establishment of EPR in China has been long and full of difficulties. This article reviews the status and trends in the establishment of an EPR system for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) management in China. We use the framework of a multilevel perspective of transition theory in our analysis to characterize the complex interactions among various agents in the evolution of the Chinese system from initial innovation‐oriented design to the current efficiency‐oriented version. An ongoing research framework for evaluation of the EPR program in China is outlined as the research agenda in coming years.     

Business‐to‐Business Information Technology User Practices at End of Life in the United Kingdom,Germany, and France

Business‐to‐business (B2B) electronics account for a significant volume of the electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) put on the market. Very little B2B waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is reported as collected in the European Union (EU) in compliance with the WEEE Directive, which uses the policy principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to ensure that WEEE is managed correctly. This presents a barrier to parties looking for access to the waste. Company practice dictates the channels into which B2B WEEE flows following primary use. This article presents a study that engaged with company actors directly to get a better understanding of business information technology (IT) EEE asset management. Data were collected to determine the barriers current practice could present to the collection of B2B IT EEE at end of life and the implications of these for the development of policies and strategies for EPR. A questionnaire was developed and data were gathered from organizations in three EU countries—the United Kingdom, Germany, and France—stratified by size. Some notable findings were that there are several routes by which end‐of‐life B2B WEEE can flow. The recycling and refurbishment of B2B IT units at end of use was shown to be commonplace, but it is likely that these units enter streams where they are not reported. The actors disposing of their units did not have information on the management or disposition of these streams. It is concluded that to achieve the goals of EPR for B2B IT WEEE, the networks and the operational practices of these streams need to be better understood when developing strategies and policies.     

“How Could I Live Here and Not Be a Member?”: Economic Versus Social Drivers of Participation in Namibian Conservation Programs

Economic goals form a critical component of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programs, but many studies question whether these initiatives actually deliver economic benefits to local communities. This presents a puzzle regarding why rural residents remain in CBNRM programs, and raises the possibility that non-economic incentives also influence participation. We address this question in a study of two Namibian communal conservancies, analyzing survey and interview data collected between 2009 and 2011. We find that economic incentives explain participation in one conservancy, whereas social motivations take precedence in the other. Our findings indicate that strong attachment to place and preferences for social cohesion can motivate people to comply with CBNRM even when economic incentives fail to materialize.     

Extended Producer Responsibility in Thailand

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) sheds light on the dimmer side of production and consumption patterns in modern societies. The rapid increase in its quantity and complexity contribute to the challenges it poses to solid waste management systems. Several members of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) have relied on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) to tackle the issue, with varying degrees of success. Several non‐OECD countries, including Thailand, are now developing WEEE programs and are looking for lessons from these first movers. This case study aims to provide an understanding both of this context and of the EPR program for WEEE proposed for Thailand. It finds that EPR mechanisms in general, and the proposed buy‐back system financed by product fees in Thailand in particular, have a strong potential to consolidate WEEE collection for the formal recycling sector by offering end users monetary incentives. On the negative side, this is an expensive combination of policy instruments, and the institutional design of the governmental fund is rigid. The policy proposal also contains no mechanism for product redesign—one of the objectives in the national WEEE strategy. This article suggests that the effectiveness of the policy might benefit from more flexibility at the compliance scheme level, in order to lessen the monopoly of the governmental fund, as well as the introduction of differentiated fees to promote environmentally friendly products.     

Closed‐Loop Supply Chains for Photovoltaic Panels: A Case‐Based Approach

Photovoltaic (PV) waste is expected to significantly increase. However, legislation on producer responsibility for the collection and recovery of PV panels is limited to the European Union (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive Recast, which lays down design, collection, and recovery measures. Academic knowledge of closed‐loop supply chains (CLSCs) for PV panels is scarce. We analyze the supply chain using multiple cases involving the main stakeholders in the design, production, collection, and recovery of PV panels. Our article answers two research questions: How does the PV supply chain operate, and what are critical factors affecting the reverse supply chain management of used panels? Our research seeks to fill the gap in the CLSC literature on PV panels, as well as to identify barriers and enablers for PV panel design, collection, and recycling.     

Public vaccine manufacturing capacity in the Latin American and Caribbean region: Current status and perspectives

The vaccine global market is currently growing at a rate of 16.52%. Nowadays the vaccine manufacturing industry is limited in the sense that not all vaccine manufacturers have the capacity to execute all the steps necessary to produce a successful product. The biological variation inherent to vaccine manufacturing and the initial investment required to bring a vaccine to the market are some of the factors that discourage vaccine manufacturing initiatives.Given the current global context in vaccine innovation and production, and the increasing participation of vaccine manufacturers from developing countries in global markets, this paper aims to review vaccine manufacturing capacity in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries with specific focus on trends in national or public sector manufacturing, presenting current challenges and future opportunities for the sector in meeting national and regional (LAC) needs.Despite the overall low vaccine manufacturing capacity reported within the LAC region within this paper, it is considered that the relatively high and concentrated capacity that exists within a number of countries, combined with political commitment of all countries within the Region, can provide the necessary platform for the continued development of capacity in vaccine development and manufacture within LAC.     

Prospective Impacts of Electronic Textiles on Recycling and Disposal

Electronic textiles are a vanguard of an emerging generation of smart products. They consist of small electronic devices that are seamlessly embedded into clothing and technical textiles. E‐textiles provide enhanced functions in a variety of unobtrusive and convenient ways. Like many high‐tech products, e‐textiles may evolve to become a mass market in the future. In this case, large amounts of difficult‐to‐recycle products will be discarded. That can result in new waste problems. This article examines the possible end‐of‐life implications of textile‐integrated electronic waste. As a basis for assessment, the innovation trends of e‐textiles are reviewed, and an overview of their material composition is provided. Next, scenarios are developed to estimate the magnitude of future e‐textile waste streams. On that base, established disposal and recycling routes for e‐waste and old textiles are assessed in regard to their capabilities to process a blended feedstock of electronic and textile materials. The results suggest that recycling old e‐textiles will be difficult because valuable materials are dispersed in large amounts of heterogeneous textile waste. Moreover, the electronic components can act as contaminants in the recycling of textile materials. We recommend scrutinizing the innovation trend of technological convergence from the life cycle perspective. Technology developers and product designers should implement waste preventative measures at the early phases in the development process of the emerging technology.     

Producer Responsibility Organizations Development and Operations

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations are now in effect in 27 European Union member states and are applicable to up to 100 million tonnes of waste packaging, batteries, automobiles, and electrical and electronic products annually. This article investigates the implementation of EPR through a case study of European Recycling Platform (ERP) UK Ltd., the UK arm of one of the largest producer responsibility organizations (PROs) in Europe, recycling more than 1.5 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment to date. Previous research is extremely limited on the detailed operations of PROs. This case is presented as an example illustrating typical operational challenges PROs face in implementing EPR, such as how PROs gain an understanding of the waste management infrastructure and legislation in each country, collect sufficient volumes of waste using cost‐effective arrangements, and maintain uninterrupted collection, treatment, and recycling services. The case study provides new insights and context on the practical implementation of EPR regulations relevant for both policy makers and researchers.     

Utilizing Waste Cable Wires for High‐Performance Fiber‐Based Hybrid Supercapacitors: An Effective Approach to Electronic‐Waste Management

In recent years, electronic waste (e‐waste) such as old cable wires, fans, circuit boards, etc., can be often seen in large piles of leftover in dumping yards. Employing these e‐waste sources for energy storage devices not only increases the economic value but also decreases the reliance on fossil fuels. In this context, waste cable wires are utilized to obtain precious copper (Cu) fibers and used as a cost‐effective current collector for the fabrication of fiber‐based hybrid supercapacitor (FHSC). With the braided Cu fibers, forest‐like nickel oxide nanosheet grafted carbon nanotube coupled copper oxide nanowire arrays (NiO NSs@CNTs@CuO NWAs/Cu fibers) are designed via simple wet‐chemical approaches. As a battery‐type material, the forest‐like NiO NSs@CNTs@CuO NWAs/Cu fiber electrode shows superior electrochemical properties including high specific capacity (230.48 mA h g^?1) and cycling stability (82.72%) in aqueous alkaline electrolyte. Moreover, a solid‐state FHSC is also fabricated using forest‐like NiO NSs@CNTs@CuO NWAs/Cu fibers as a positive electrode and activated carbon coated carbon fibers as a negative electrode with a gel electrolyte, which also shows a higher energy and power densities of 26.32 W h kg^?1 and 1218.33 W kg^?1, respectively. The flexible FHSC is further employed as an energy source for various electronic gadgets, demonstrating its suitability for wearable applications.     

An approach to the collection and manipulation of time-based data using the IBM PC and BASICA

With the advent of increasingly integrated, powerful and inexpensivedigital electronics, relatively powerful computers have becomeavailable to the general public. Along with this technologicalboom there has been a concomitant increase in the availabilityof over-the-counter software packages which can be used by researchscientists for program development. In the past, the developmentof computer programs for the collection of large amounts oftime-based data was expensive and time consuming; however, theintroduction of the current generation of 16-bit microcomputersand associated hardware and software packages has enabled investigatorswith only a rudimentary knowledge of computers and interfacingto begin to design programs. The schemes and algorithms, developedusing BASICA on an IBM-Personal Computer, which are describedin this article can serve other investigators as models forthe assembly of their own programs for the collection, manipulationand plotting of time-based data. The incorporation of inexpensivecomputer graphics hardware and software, which provided a simplesolution to the problem of analysis and presentation of largeamounts of data, will also be discussed. Received on December 19, 1984; accepted on December 22, 1984     

Smartphone repairability indexes in practice: Linking repair scores to industrial design features

Policymaking mediates the relationships between manufacturers and consumers, thus defining the boundaries for the philosophies of production set forth by major companies. Research states that policymaking falls short in addressing the waste issues, natural resources consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and other negative impacts posed by premature obsolescence; only recently have the “right-to-repair” guidelines demanded by environmental organizations and communities of citizens been included in policymaking. The introduction of the Index of Repairability in France as information at the point of sale aims to inform consumers and support their decision-making in purchasing more repairable products. In this paper, we consider the two Indexes of Repairability publicly available to consumers—in the French legislation and iFixit—and assess their application to smartphones from three manufacturers. The study establishes links between the scores and the industrial design features that promote or hinder repairability, service factors and information for self-repair, authorized repair, and independent repair. Data collection considers the available information for consumers and citizens by using netnography and secondary data from manufacturers, policymakers, and communities of users. Our findings suggest that higher scores that indicate easier repairability are not limited to product architectures that follow design for disassembly guidelines. Smartphones that are difficult to repair can still score high, and thus be perceived as easier to repair, if manufacturers provide high quality and affordable service. This paper discusses the results of the ongoing development of repairability scores for smartphones, thus suggesting paths for future research to improve methods and policies to support a longer lifetime of products.