Professor Martin Goosey, Industrial Director of the Innovative Electronics Manufacturing Research Centre at Loughborough has recently pointed out the importance of an eco-friendly approach to electronic products. Here is a summary of his paper:
One of the major dilemmas that characterizes our modern societies is ubiquity of electronic technologies,. We have opportunities for entertainment, information and data collection and exchange that fifty years ago would have been fanciful. Yet, this same technology is accompanied by a potential to generate waste and environmental destruction on an equally comparable scale. Forbiddingly we may add that we have only touched a fraction of the potential for the electronic revolution. The electronics industry is characterized by rapid, novel, short lifetime products each with enhanced performance at reduced cost,; mobile phones, games consoles, personal audio equipment and computer components are a few clear examples. These characteristics suggest that the electronics industry is unsustainable in its present constitution. The European Commission has recently proposed policies, Producer Responsibility Legislation, to address the issue of more sustainable use of resources and energy throughout the product life-cycle. Part of the strategy is to promote recycling or re-use and to inhibit the use of hazardous materials. It has engaged industry through key directives such as those on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). There have been directives on the use and disposal of Batteries and Accumulators and of Energy Using Products. Similar legislation is being promulgated in China, Korea and the USA. The hazardous character of many electronic manufacturing materials has been the focus of attention of environmental activists eg Greenpeace. Consequently a number of high profile cases have achieved front-page notoriety e.g. the use of lead in solders. The industry has thus been forced to adopt less toxic and more sustainable materials and processes. The lead tin solders have largely been replaced by tin-silver-copper alloys. Likewise the use of compounds of mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium are being questioned as are the use of brominated flame retardants. Some acceptable, halogen-free replacements are now appearing in the marketplace even before the implementation of legislation. There is still the issue of disposal to deal with. In the recent past large quantities of unwanted electronic equipment has been disposed of in landfill. Clearly this frustrated any possible recycling or recovery. Now a hierarchy of possible approaches have been identified that range from extending the lives of some equipment e.g. changing computer CPUs, hard drives, RAM, to recovering components and materials e.g. gold, silver, tantalum, palladium and copper. There are even recoverable plastics that suffuse mobile phones, laptops and PDAs. There is, finally, the possibility of energy recovery through incineration with appropriate effluent scrubbing. Liquid crystal displays represent a good example of profitable material recovery, they contain not only considerable quantities of liquid crystals but also indium. A program, supported by the Technology Strategy Board, is being undertaken by a UK consortium to evaluate recovery from this source. Axon Polymers, a UK-based plastics recycler, has developed techniques to sort and separate mixtures of polymers in order to create new materials. Recently, Active Recycling Ltd. has demonstrated that it is possible to re-use the components of mobile phones to construct the central processing unit of new control units. This eliminates the need for new manufacture, materials and high-energy processes. In the future we must accept that electronic technologies will continue to make advances in quality and efficiency but it will be essential that these gains are achieved in a sustainable manner using less energy and fewer hazardous materials. Total life considerations must include the possibilities of re-use, extended life and recycling components/materials. The experience of other industries in this respect will be invaluable but it also requires more industry-specific R&D. Motorola has recently pronounced a first carbon-neutral phone whose body, it claims, is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. However, it is clear that, once more what is also required is a change in individual behaviour that endeavors to use products for a full life-cycle rather than disposing of it at a whim.
Professor Martin Goosey, Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Ashby Road, Loughborough, LE11 3TU UK Telephone: +44(0)1509 227688 e-mail:martingoosey@aol.com or m.goosey@lboro.ac.uk
