Does the circularity end justify the means? A life cycle assessment of preparing waste electrical and electronic equipment for reuse

Abstract

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) pose a significant threat to the environment and public health due to the hazardous substances and the valuable and often scarce resources they contain. Policies for WEEE recycling have been adopted in most countries, while in the European Union the WEEE Directive renders preparing for reuse as a priority, although specific quantitative targets have not been imposed so far. Preparation for reuse to be effective requires improved WEEE collection networks and additional infrastructure, such as sorting and repair centres, all of which consume energy and materials, which also have environmental impacts. Moreover, refurbished appliances may be less energy efficient and there is a need to assess whether this benefit justifies the preparation for reuse burdens. The aim of this study was to investigate, under real-life operating conditions, whether the life cycle environmental impacts resulting from the preparation for reuse of WEEE are offset by the benefits of avoiding a new product purchase, which may have a lower energy consumption during its use lifespan. Data for desktops, laptops, monitors, printers, smartphones, and vacuum cleaners were collected from the two full-scale sorting centres in Greece, and life cycle assessments were performed. Results indicate that repair and reuse of smartphones leads to a reduction of their environmental impacts up to 25 %. To a lesser degree, laptops, desktops, and monitors, lead to reduce environmental impacts from −1.4 % to 19.2 %. For printers, the reductions are almost negligible, from 0.3 % to 3 %. On the other side, the repair and reuse of vacuum cleaners resulted in an increase of almost all their environmental impacts instead, even more than 70 % for marine and freshwater eutrophication. These findings can be used to the policy discourse for specific preparing for reuse targets and to inform decision-making. This could lead to prioritising specific categories for repair such as smartphones while avoiding specific WEEE categories from preparing for reuse such as vacuum cleaners and instead promote their substitution.