Abstract
This paper reports on research undertaken to identify generic and specific barriers to reuse of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from across the value chain including product designers, manufacturers, users and waste managers as well policy makers and academics. The interviews sought to examine perceived and real barriers to reuse in the UK. Three inter-connected factors that limit opportunities and instances of reuse of electrical and electronic equipment were identified, highlighting that both systemic and consumer barriers to increasing levels of reuse exist. These are: producer reluctance, unsuitable collection infrastructure and cultural issues. Overall, the paper shows that low levels of reuse in the electrical and electronic sector are a result of complex and interlinked barriers. Understanding these connections offers the potential to improve the opportunities for reuse, by providing direction for policy makers to address barriers from a multi stakeholder perspective. Increasing instances of reuse is essential if the UK is to successfully move towards a resource efficient, circular economy.
Highlights
Discarded electrical and electronic equipment has become one of the fastest growing global waste streams (Baldé et al, 2015) due to rapidly developing technology, the increasing number of products containing electrical or electronic functions and decreasing product lifetimes (Laurenti et al, 2015)
Initiatives towards a circular economy (Stahel, 2016) are intended to address current and future resource concerns, and in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan (EC, 2015a,b) the inclusion of strategies to extend product lifetimes highlights the importance of reuse, when value remains in working products and their components (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013; Green Alliance, 2015) and many discarded items remain in a functional condition (WRAP, 2011b)
Data analysis reveals three distinct, but interlinked, groups of barriers to reuse in the electronic equipment (EEE) sector: 1) producer resistance, 2) unsuitable collection infrastructure, and 3) consumer attitudes towards reuse (Table 2, Figs. 4 and 5)
Summary
Discarded electrical and electronic equipment has become one of the fastest growing global waste streams (Baldé et al, 2015) due to rapidly developing technology, the increasing number of products containing electrical or electronic functions and decreasing product lifetimes (Laurenti et al, 2015). This in turn has increased global demand for a number of resources (Greenfield and Graedel, 2013) and led to particular concerns around the supply of critical raw materials (WRAP, 2011a, 2015a; EC, 2015a,b). This dominance is present in the academic literature, in which there are many articles on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling but considerably fewer on EEE reuse
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