Abstract
This study analyses the metal recyclability from waste Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) with three material recycling quoting approaches: Material Recycling Efficiency (MRE), Resource Recovery Efficiency (RRE), and Quotes for Environmentally Weighted Recyclability (QWERTY). The results indicate that MRE is likely inapplicable to quoting the metal recyclability of waste PCBs because it makes the recycling of any metal is equal to each other (e.g. recycling of 1 kg of gold is as important as recycling of 1 kg of iron). RRE and QWERTY can overcome the poor yardstick of MRE because they concern not only the weight of recycled materials but also the contribution of recycled materials to the natural resource conservation and the environmental impact reduction, respectively. These two approaches, however, report an extremely different result, that makes the target stakeholders get confused with which material recycled. From the findings of the aforementioned analysis, this study proposes the Model for Evaluating Metal Recycling Efficiency from Complex Scraps (MEMRECS) as a new approach to quotes the metal recycling performance. MEMRECS allows a trade-offs between three criteria: mass, environmental impacts and natural resources conservation, hence it can provide the result in a sustainable sound manner. MEMRECS clearly models and enhances the role of natural resources conservation aspect rather than QWERTY does.
Highlights
Metals have been playing as an indispensable role in the development of human society, as P
The results indicate that Material Recycling Efficiency (MRE) is likely inapplicable to quoting the metal recyclability of waste Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) because it makes the recycling of any metal equal to each other
MEMRECS has been introduced as a new quantitative measure for quoting the metal recyclability of waste PCBs
Summary
Metals have been playing as an indispensable role in the development of human society, as P. Metals are not biodegradable and have virtually an unlimited lifespan and the potential for unlimited recyclability They are well suited for sustainable development goals [2]. The amount of energy saved using various recycled metals compared to virgin ore is up to 95% for aluminum [3], 85% for copper [4], 60 percent for steel [5], 75% for zinc [3], and 90% for nickel. Score (100%), irrespective of how much individual metal fractions contribute to total metal recyclability of product (further called “contribution score”). This study analyses the contribution score of metal fractions contained in three types of PCB with three different material recycling quoting (MRQ) approaches: Material Recycling Efficiency (MRE) [9], Resource Recovery Efficiency (RRE) [10], and Quotes for environmentally Weighted RecyclabiliTY (QWERTY) [11]. The contribution scores are presented by MEMRECS approach and compared with previous approaches
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