At most recycling facilities, e-waste undergoes limited dismantling (i.e. of hazardous or valuable components such as batteries, motors or certain PCB’s) before it is shredded into smaller pieces for further separation and sorting.
The extent of manual disassembly that recyclers will do beyond those initial steps is an economic decision. More disassembly before shredding can result in more homogenous, less contaminated and therefore more valuable streams of recycled materials, but it is also more labour intensive, which will increase the cost price of these materials.
The fact that shredding is (by far) the most likely recycling scenario has clear implications for design. Of course your product may need to be disassembled to some extent for other purposes, such as repair or maintenance. But when you are considering the product’s end-of-life it is most beneficial to focus your design efforts on how effectively the product can be shredded. This will help recyclers to improve the yield (the quantity that is retrieved) and quality (i.e. purity) of the recycled materials.
In module 4 we will look at how the trade-off between dismantling and shredding might develop in the future, as well as the state of the art of disassembly.
Example: Optimising for shredding
The Philips SlimStyle LED is an example of how designers can anticipate the end-of-life treatment of their product. The image below shows how the LED was designed to be shredded effectively, allowing for optimal separation of its materials.
Philips SlimStyle LED: design for recyclability. Source: Ontwerpen met Kunststofrecyclaat – Guidelines, Partners for Innovation, RVO Nederland & NRK (2015).
