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Photovoltaic (PV) power is a renewable energy commonly presented as a “clean” source. Since this energy power is seen as very profitable, new technologies are evolving very rapidly. It's therefore necessary to evaluate the environmental benefits of PV systems related to technological progress. In this work a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in accordance with the ISO 14040 and 14044 [1] standards is used...
Although competitors from low-cost countries are pushing manufacturers to lowering prices and replace the production [1] at the expense of quality, the definition of new scenarios through research and development seems the best way to succeed. This paper seeks to explain why companies should invest in the redesign of household appliances when there is a potential improvement in the sustainability...
The EU Chemical Policy aims at has negative effects on innovation and circular economy practices, in particular on the medical imaging devices sector, both from a qualitative and quantitave point of view. COCIR estimates that only 2,4% of the RoHS substances have been removed from medical imaging devices. The remaining 97,6% is actually covered by exemptions, as no alternatives are available. The...
Waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) contains a series of valuable substances, which are used as secondary raw materials. There are however some WEEE components that are currently not recycled due to technical and economic hurdles. This paper presents results indicating that pre-treatment of mixed shred of WEEE plastics by x-ray transition (XRT) and density sorting enables an effective...
Recycling of waste that contains metals is a growing economic opportunity for micro, small and medium enterprises and an important income source for the informal sector in developing and emerging economies (DEE). However, mechanisms to track sustainable recovery have not been fully developed yet. The Guidance Principles for the Sustainable Management of Secondary Metals (Guidance Principles) are tackling...
Our industry leading separation technology enables us to recover a variety of plastics from complex mixed streams such as shredded waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Plastic flakes recovered using our process are compounded and sold as pellets suitable for use in injection molding applications. Polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and high impact polystyrene (HIPS)...
The volumes of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) generated in some African countries can be compared to those of some Eastern European countries, but many of them do not have any WEEE legislation and/or collection and treatment system in place besides voluntary initiatives and the informal sector. The volumes of EEE placed on the market are expected to grow by >7% in the coming years,...
Consumption of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is rapidly increasing in developing countries. Usually, there are no available data about amounts of WEEE generated in these countries. The assessment of present and future amounts of obsolete devices is a crucial step for the establishment of efficient waste collection and treatment systems.
Based on previous experiences in intelligent disassembly of components from printed circuit boards our goal was to develop an economic solution for reducing the amount of material for the later hydrometallurgical recovery process and to recognize reusable parts on printed circuit boards. Usually the hydrometallurgical recovery process is very time consuming and therefore the recovery rate still relatively...
Exports of used electrical and electronic equipment (UEEE) from richer countries and into developing countries provide socio-economic benefits, but also contribute to the huge environmental and health damages e-waste causes in these countries.
This study proposes a concept of remote recycling and prototyped the remote operation system. Then, the paper tried to examine whether the remote recycling is technically feasible. In the experiment, material compositions of the separated parts through remote operation were measured, and also operation capability was checked. And then, the results were compared with those of manual disassembly of...
As a result of the replacement of cathode ray tube screens (CRTs) by flat screens, the world is confronted with stranded end-of-life CRTs. CRTs contain 1 to 1.5 kg of lead per screen; mainly found in the funnel and neck glass for radiation protection purposes. The lead content makes this CRT glass unsuitable in most glass applications. Thus, there is an urgent need for alternative recycling options...
In 2010 Brazil has instituted the national policy on solid waste (law 12.305/2010) that determines a set of principles and actions for the integrated management and environmentally appropriate of solid waste. To support WEEE recycling facilities to comply with national policy on solid waste, in 2013 the Information Technology Center Renato Archer (CTI), coordinated the creation of the Brazilian national...
ProSUM - Latin for “I am useful” - aims to provide better information on raw materials from secondary origins. It focuses in particular on the content of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) from Batteries (BATT), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), End of Life Vehicles (ELV) and Mining Wastes (MIN) available for processing in Europe. Batteries are considered a highly relevant waste group in...
ProSUM - Latin for “I am useful” - aims to provide better information on raw materials from secondary origins. It focuses in particular on the content of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) from Batteries (BATT), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), End of Life Vehicles (ELV) and Mining Wastes (MIN) available for processing in Europe. However, data for these products are usually very scattered...
Over time, through incremental innovation, mobile phones and smartphones have more and more functions, becoming indispensable for everyday life. This has several consequences, one of them being that users replace their mobile phones and smartphones at ever shorter time intervals, which in turn implies an increased demand for (critical and precious) metals needed for the production of mobile phones...
Third generation photovoltaics (3GPV) which include dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs); organic photovoltaics (OPV); and perovskite solar cells, are promising green energy technologies in their infancy which hold the promise of low cost energy generation for the future. At this early stage in development, full lifecycle optimisation taking account of all parts of the product lifecycle is required...
Different approaches are usually carried out to reduce environmental impacts on telecommunications infrastructures and supported services. The proposal her is to focus on the subject which is at the origin of the energy consumption: the software layers. An important mitigation of the resources consumption of the software layer will contribute to reduce energy consumption to the underlying hardware...
In recent years, numerous studies estimated the potential environmental benefits of ICT products and services. These studies usually extrapolate the results of small case studies to society-wide potentials. We analyse one of the most popular ICT services envisioned to induce such benefits, smart metering. Reviewing existing pilot studies, we establish an inverse correlation between the size of the...
This study focuses on quantitative evaluation of resource efficiency of products and proposes a concrete index. In this paper, the value was evaluated by the original value plus reusability and recyclability of the product. Environmental aspect of the product is quantified by TMR (total material requirement). As a case study, the paper takes mobile phones. The paper carries out conjoint analysis to...
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