The challenge of introducing design for the circular economy in the electronics industry: A proposal for metrics

Abstract

The introduction of design for the circular economy (DfCE) in the electronics industry can strongly build on the earlier experiences in the field of applied ecodesign. Although the design methodology DfCE as such is identical compared to traditional ecodesign, DfCE needs different metrics because it includes apart from the environmental dimension also supply criticality and recyclability. Such metrics are proposed in the present paper. These will allow to come to prioritized action agendas for DfCE. Moreover, the numbers will allow to position the actions appropriately in the internal and external value chains. The basis for such metrics is to assign to each individual material in a product a weight based resource factor (RF). Such RFs include ‘factors’ for supply criticality, environmental load and recyclability. This allows to calculate ‘consolidated’ RFs for products as well. This approach will very effective in promoting circularity, because it starts from its core. That is: looking to how (and why) specific materials are applied and using a numerical method to put this into perspective. Primarily this is helpful to address the internal value chain. Also supply side issues and demand side issues (consumers) will get a lot of attention in this paper, both at the front side (design) and the back side (discarding behaviour of users). The combination of both aspects will allow to come to develop the best strategies for reuse for different product groups. For the informal sector application of the metrics is still premature, but in future there could be contributions as well. In the discussion section, issues are raised as regards possible contradictions between resource issues and emission issues and about conflicts of interest between DfCE and business interest in more general. Moreover, attention is paid to the way DfCE can contribute to enrich traditional ecodesign.