Using New Spare Parts for Repair of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment? The Material Footprint of Individual Components

Abstract

The growing production of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) requires close loop management to protect the environment and save resources. Repair and reuse can extend the product’s life span. However, debates on the differences seen in resource consumption linked to the different ways of repairing devices have received a limited amount of attention. This article demonstrates quantification of the resource consumption (cradle-to-gate) of five types of appliances on a component level based on life-cycle assessment within the framework of the product-material-footprint. The data for this assessment is based on the dismantling of these products, weighing their components, and determining their material composition. The results show that the resource relevance of all devices is dominated by a few individual components. For example, for flat-screen monitors, 5 out of 17 components per device account for more than 90% of resource consumption (abiotic total material requirement). Hence, repairing devices while using new spare parts is not always the most resource-efficient way of handling WEEE. The results of this investigation suggest that the resource consumption in repairs should be taken into account at different levels, e.g., regulatory, with regard to eco-design requirements, or for informational purposes with a view to the consideration of the repair and reuse practices.

Environmental footprints show the savings potential of high reparability through modular smartphone design

“…Possibilities include raising customer awareness, increasing the modularity of the display so that it can also be repaired, and evaluating and testing better display protection techniques. Since a few components typically dominate the material resource requirements of entire electrical and electronic devices, it may be worthwhile to extend such strategies to other components 24 . However, the repair statistics of the SHIFTPHONE show that after the display and the battery, it is mainly less materialintensive, small components that are replaced.…”

“…Such end-of-life measures are already being implemented or planned as part of the circular economy strategy of the SHIFT GmbH seeking to implement value-retention processes, but the quanti cation of their effect is the subject of future research. As repairing devices while using new components is not automatically the most resource-e cient way, other options for extending the lifetime and best possible utilisation of the existing components and devices should also be modelled and compared 24 .…”