SUbstance flow analysis of the recycling of small waste electrical ...

118 Substance flow analysis of the recycling of small WEEE
A concrete example of design-for-recycling relates to the accessibility of printed circuit
boards. The manual removal of printed circuit boards would partially prevent the losses of
precious metals in side-streams (Paper 2). How easy the manual removal is, depends on
product design. Design-for-recycling models to link product design to the amount and
composition of the output fractions of mechanical pre-processing and to the products of the
subsequent material recovery processes were developed by Van Schaik and Reuter (2004,
2007).
However, recycling-friendly designed products does not mean that the materials are actually
recycled. Recyclable materials can only be recycled if adequate infrastructure, consumer
attitude and appropriate business models are available to collect and treat the waste.
7.2.2. Generate less WEEE
The Waste Framework Directive (2006) of the European Union defines the “prevention or
reduction of waste production and its harmfulness” as a first priority of waste policy. Among
other advantages, waste prevention supports sustainability through minimising human and
environmental health risks from waste treatment and disposal (Vancini 2000). Vancini (2000)
distinguishes three types of practical actions for waste prevention: strict avoidance, reduction
at source and product reuse. Reusing EEE or WEEE to avoid the necessity of treating of
WEEE is a strategy for waste prevention, even though only temporarily, since in the long
term it cannot be avoided that the reused equipment becomes WEEE.
Besides reuse, the generation of WEEE can be limited through following strategies (modified
from Vancini (2000)):
Avoid the purchase of EEE;
Purchase EEE designed for a long use;
Increase the use time of EEE by:
o Repairing
o Maintenance (to prevent the break-down of EEE)
o Improvement (to modernise the EEE).
Apply new business models that allow reducing the WEEE generation, like leasing,
where for example the function “phoning during two years” is sold instead of the
object “mobile phone”, which has to be returned after two years.
Prevention can only be achieved by influencing practical decisions taken at various stages of
the life cycle: how a product is designed, manufactured, made available to the consumer and
finally used (COM 2005). Waste prevention can conflict with the sales objectives of the EEE