Designing with Plastics: Considering Part Recyclability and the Use of Recycled Materials

Abstract

It is a widely shared view that economic development will not be sustainable unless industry embarks on more innovative and proactive approaches to corporate environmental stewardship. “Green” product realization strategies — such as design for recycling (DFR) — and the increased use of recycled materials in the manufacture of new products are viewed as crucial components of such an approach. AT&T's design and engineering community is active in both fields. DFR is introduced as part of a broader design for environment (DFE) program. In addition, there are ambitious initiatives to find suitable internal uses for plastics recyclate, which AT&T's material reclamation organizations have produced from scrapped telephone housings for many years. These two programs are symbiotic: The greater the number of products designed for recycling, the greater the amount of high-value materials that can be readily recovered from them at the end of their useful lives. In turn, the higher the quality of the recycled materials, the easier to recycle those materials into new products. This paper describes strategies for DFR applicable to plastic parts and discusses two initial applications of post-consumer recycled plastics in new AT&T products.