Closing the Loop on E‐waste: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

This paper describes the challenges faced, and opportunities identified, by a multidisciplinary team of researchers developing a novel closed loop system to recover valuable metals and reduce e‐waste, focusing on mobile phones as a case study. This multidisciplinary approach is contrasted with current top‐down approaches to making the transition to the circular economy (CE). The aim of the research presented here is to develop a product service system (PSS) that facilitates the recovery of valuable functional components and metals from mobile phone circuit boards. To create a holistic solution and limit unintended consequences, in addition to technological solutions, this paper considers appropriate component lifetimes; the (often ignored) role of the citizen in the circular economy; customer interaction with the PSS; environmental life cycle assessment; and social impacts of the proposed PSS. Development of enabling technologies and materials to facilitate recovery of components and metals and to provide an emotionally durable external enclosure is described. This research also highlights the importance of understanding value in the CE from a multifaceted and interdisciplinary perspective.     

Slower Consumption Reflections on Product Life Spans and the "Throwaway Society"

Sustainable consumption is unlikely to be achieved as long as the quantity of household waste generated in industrial nations continues to rise. One factor underlying this trend is the life span of household goods. This article contributes to recent advances in life-cycle thinking by highlighting the significance of product life spans for sustainable consumption and exploring the current state of research. A theoretical model is developed to demonstrate how, by contributing to efficiency and sufficiency, longer product life spans may secure progress toward sustainable consumption. Empirical research undertaken in the United Kingdom on consumer attitudes and behavior relating to the life spans of household products is reviewed and factors that influence the market for longer-lasting products are discussed. A need is identified for further research on product life spans and some themes are proposed.     

Service Lifetime,Storage Time,and Disposal Pathways of Electronic Equipment: A Swiss Case Study

Product lifetime is an essential aspect of dynamic material flow analyses and has been modeled using lifetime distribution functions, mostly average lifetimes. Existing data regarding the lifetime of electronic equipment (EE) are based on diverging definitions of lifetime as well as different temporal and regional scopes. After its active use, EE is often not disposed of immediately, but remains in storage for some time. Specific data on the share of EE that is stored and the time they remain in storage are scarce. This article investigates the service lifetime, storage time, and disposal pathways of ten electronic device types, based on data from an online survey complemented by structured interviews. We distinguish between new and secondhand devices and compute histograms, averages, and medians of the different lifetimes and their change over time. The average service lifetime varies from 3.3 years for mobile phones to 10.8 years for large loudspeakers, the average storage time from 0.8 years for flat panel display televisions to 3.6 years for large loudspeakers. Most service lifetime histograms are positively skewed and show substantial differences among device types. The storage time histograms, being more similar to one another, indicate that the storage behavior is similar for most device types. The data on disposal pathways show that a large proportion of devices are stored and reused before they reach the collection scheme.