Methodology and Database for the Quantification of the Technical Recyclability of Electrical and Electronical Equipment
Article published in the trade journal “Sustainability”
Dr. Matthias Hämmer and Dr. Karsten Wambach have published a joint paper entitled “Methodology and Database for the Quantification of the Technical Recyclability of Electrical and Electronic Equipment Demonstrated on a Smartphone Case Study”. This article is a result of a joint project between the bifa environmental institute and the electronics company Apple Inc. It presents a method and a database for calculating the technical recyclability of electrical and electronic equipment. The method is a further development of the methodology of the European standard EN 45555. Quality criteria were introduced here to be able to evaluate the quality of the recycling. Other calculations do not distinguish between high-quality recycling, through which recycled materials can be reused in equivalent products, and so-called downcycling, in which the recycled materials are only used with a loss of quality.
In addition, a comprehensive database of recycling rates was developed based on scientific literature, expert information and scientifically and technically sound estimates. This includes 14 recycling processes from the mechanical shredding and sorting of old electrical appliances to metallurgical processes such as copper or aluminum smelting and more innovative processes such as the recycling of neodymium from NdFeB magnets, as well as the 30 most important materials in electronic products.
As an example, the method and database were evaluated on a typical smartphone. It was shown that the choice of materials, the depth of disassembly and the mechanical treatment have the greatest influence on technical recyclability. These results from the case study show the potential of the database and the methodology, as well as the importance of both for the recycling-friendly design of electrical and electronic equipment.