Breaking Barriers on Reuse of Digital Devices Ensuring Final Recycling

Abstract

Abstract-Digital Devices or Electric and Electronic Equipment (EEE) are scrapped at an alarming rate instead of being salvaged, fixed, and reused. For the reuse sector to flourish, donors, receivers, and reuse centers need services and technologies to gain effectiveness, efficiency, and traceability to reach the goal of greatly extending the lifetime of devices and still ensuring their final recycling. The main challenges to overcome are access to sufficient good-quality used devices, quick preparation of those with greatest potential for reuse, ability to make direct donations, guarantee that reused devices are eventually recycled, communication of the social and environmental value of reuse, establishing a system to reward donors, and ensuring commitment of receivers of reused devices to recycling. We present a set of open-source tools based on a distributed platform ecosystem that supports direct donation of devices. Devices are prepared for reuse in the donor's location, and receivers collect them. Malicious users are discouraged by a reputation scheme to reward cooperative receivers that reuse devices and track them until disposed to recycling agents. This reduces costs, and minimizes EEE losses as there is no need for a central logistic system or centralizing the engagement of donors on charity projects. The background and foreground Intellectual Property follows an open model (unrestricted), as the goal is to bootstrap the reuse process, generate local efficiencies, guarantee final recycling, and ensure traceability. Pilots already performed for more than four years and two thousand devices validate the model with 80% traceability of device components.

Circular digital devices: lessons about the social and planetary boundaries

“…When we look back to our initial work [24] and the Limits paper [21], we do not find major differences. Our previous work built on previous practice, the service-learning experience of artisanal preparation of computers for reuse.…”

“…This coordination and community development requires the establishment of common local processes to support the reuse of electronics. To ensure efficiency, transparency, and accountability in the reversesupply chain, we developed open-source software 2 [24] to extract details quickly and easily for diagnosis and automation of inventory, triage and preparation of secondhand devices, and generation of QR codes to stick on devices for traceability, as well as data formats and tools to collect and store data on the lifespan of each device, and finally for computing open data on impacts and for reports. This functionality is in line with the so-called "digital product passport", a concept that is gaining attention in the political agenda and expected to provide consistent digital information on the origin, composition, repair, and dismantling options for a product, as well as on its handling at the end of its service life [1].…”

“…Corporate social responsibility of companies, volunteer-based initiatives to donate personal devices, public donors such as in Barcelona, Amsterdam, combined with NGO and social enterprises such as ComputerAid or eReuse[24] …”

A circular commons for digital devices

“…The overall potential of reuse of digital devices can be compared to the number of devices renewed annually, in the range of billions, but a large fraction is dismantled well before the end of usable life. This results in most electric and electronic equipment (EEE) being recycled too early, despite the demand for reuse coming particularly from social organisations [10]. According to a survey by Flash Eurobarometer [8], on average, 50% of people in Europe would be happy to buy second-hand electronic goods.…”

“…However, reuse is still a minority practice due to the lack of structural support. In public institutions, more than 80% of digital devices to be recycled are still operational (without need for repair) [10]. Unfortunately, most of them, when depreciated or out of guarantee, are recycled instead of fixed, upgraded, or reused.…”