Electronic Equipment Directive Research Articles

End-of-life solar photovoltaic waste management: A comparison as per European Union and United States regulatory approaches

The increasing growth of solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment raises end-of-life management concerns. Previous studies have forecasted PV waste; however, the implications of the regulations were not assessed. The present study estimates the volume and composition of end-of-life solar PV waste for the European Union and the United States. The recycling potential of generated waste and the fate of materials in end-of-life PV waste as per the present regulations is also estimated. Further, the work analyses solar manufacturers contributing to the waste and provides recommendations for improving solar PV waste management. The analysis in the present study shows that 24.93 million tonnes and 36.23 million tonnes (metric ton) of PV waste with an economic value of 189 billion USD and 262 billion USD are expected to be generated between 2025 and 2050 in the US and European Union, respectively. This work also indicates that the US lacks federal PV waste-specific management regulations and has different requirements across the states. In contrast, European countries have adopted the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive in their national legislations in addition to country-specific PV manufacturer compliance schemes. Due to the lack of regulations, 20 MT of PV waste is expected to be disposed of in landfills in the US. Chinese manufacturers like Tongwei, Aiko, and LONGi are leading manufacturers of PV shipments globally. They could play a significant role in PV recycling and management if they adopt take-back programs and invest in recycling, contributing to future end-of-life PV waste management. In light of these observations, a need for greater synchronization between federal and state-level end-of-life PV regulations, collaboration among recyclers and PV industry stakeholders, and continued research and knowledge sharing is recommended. Secondly, incorporating emerging contaminants in PV waste regulations and waste characterization methods is required for responsible recycling and safe management.

Product Lifecycle Information Flow in E-waste Handling: a Means to Increase Circularity?

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing waste stream. In Europe, e-waste is regulated by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Each manufacturer or importer is responsible for the end-of-life (EoL) treatment of the equipment it handles, although this task is usually outsourced to producer responsibility organizations (PROs) that collect and treat the e-waste. The WEEE regime has been criticized for focusing on waste handling according to the traditional linear economy, while, in a circular economy, the goal is to eliminate waste. Information sharing helps improve circularity, and digital technology is seen as enabling information transparency and visibility in the supply chain. However, there is need for empirical studies demonstrating the use of information in supply chains to improve circularity. We conducted a case study of a manufacturer, including its subsidiaries and PROs in eight European countries, in which we investigated the product lifecycle information flow related to e-waste. Our findings indicate that product lifecycle information is available, but that it is provided for purposes other than e-waste handling. Actors are willing to share this information, but it is not regarded as useful for EoL treatment since the actors involved in EoL handling believe that using this information could lead to delays and poorer performance in e-waste handling. Our findings contradict the optimistic view of digital technology as improving circularity in circular supply chain management. The findings further give reason to question the implementation of digital technology to improve the product lifecycle information flow as long as the involved actors do not request this information.

Design, adoption and implementation of electronic waste policies in India.

Globally, E-waste is experiencing an unprecedented growth in the recent years. This growth will be fueled further by the COVID-19 pandemic owing to the new work culture where people are becoming more dependent on their electronic products than ever before. However, governance of E-waste, particularly in the Global South, has been a complex phenomenon. Considering this, the current study attempted to assess the design, adoption, and implementation of E-waste policies in India-a major electronics manufacturing hub with a massive consumer electronics market. Taking hints from theoretical concepts such as policy transfer, policy convergence, and policy effectiveness, the study addressed the primary research question: why India adopts E-waste policy approaches that seem inadequate and ineffective in its local contexts and attempts to identify alternative approaches. Through expert interviews and policy document analysis, it was observed that E-waste policy approaches in India are largely influenced by the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. All the experts interviewed recognized absence of the informal sector in India's policy efforts of both 2011 and 2016 as a significant lacuna in the country's E-waste policy responses. In this paper, the author argues that there should be policy change towards a healthy collaboration between the informal and formal sector where best-of-the-two-worlds could be wisely used for sustainable E-waste governance in India.

Public-private partnership versus extended producer responsibility for end-of-life of photovoltaic modules management policy

Photovoltaic technology has afforded a sustainable and ecological solution for electricity production. In the first quarter of 2019, the global installed capacity has reached 480-Gigawatt peak, as reported by International Renewable Energy Agency. An enormous amount of End-of-life photovoltaic modules will emerge to the waste streams in the near future. A review of available legislation, policies, and guidelines revealed that end-of-life of photovoltaic modules’ management has not been addressed clearly in many countries. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive in the Europe Union is the only available code that has included the end-of-life of photovoltaic modules. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis was used to evaluate the end-of-life of photovoltaic modules’ waste management in Jordan. A quantitative strategic planning matrix was created to compare between the Europe Union’s Extended Producer Responsibility and Private-Public Partnership policy concepts. The quantitative results favor Private-Public Partnership at 5.7 over Extended Producer Responsibility at 4.9 for Jordan. This study offers policy enhancement recommendations for end-of-life of photovoltaic modules’ waste management; the proposed policy encourages both the government and the private sector share the responsibility to manage the waste resulting from using renewable energy technology.

Production planning of a closed-loop hybrid system on primary/secondary market under WEEE Directive and 2-way substitution

Manufacturers are increasingly interested in the design of hybrid manufacturing/remanufacturing systems in terms of environmental protection and the desire to enhance profits. Furthermore, they have realised the role of the quality characteristics of end-of-life items on the cost of the remanufacturing process. This paper introduces a production planning optimisation model for a hybrid system, which consists of both manufacturing and remanufacturing processes, under a 2-way substitution strategy and stochastic quality characteristics of returned items. A stochastic model, which allows the customers to switch from new to remanufactured products and vice versa, is conducted based on the size of demand in primary/secondary markets. A numerical example is provided to compare the optimal strategies with and without considering the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. Finally, a global sensitivity analysis is performed to assess the impacts of characteristic parameters on the optimal solution. The findings indicate that the high quality of returns can encourage more customers to purchase remanufactured items even without decreasing the expected profit made by the manufacturer. Furthermore, with a high recycling rate, the manufacturer is enabled to extract more reusable components and hence make more profit.

Current Practices on Solar Photovoltaic Waste Management: An Overview of the Potential Risk and Regulatory Approaches of the Photovoltaic Waste

The use of hazardous metals like lead, cadmium in solar photovoltaics (PVs) are rapidly increasing which poses the risk to the environment due to potential release of these constituents. The main purpose of this review is to highlight the updated information on solar PV waste along with the present condition of efforts for recovery, country-wise regulatory approach or strategy on solar PV management and recycling. A brief literature review is assessed based on recently published articles and reports, which provides the readers a general overview on the solar PV waste management and regulations made by world leader countries in solar panels. This study discussed on the risk of hazardous chemical species releasing from PV modules and criteria of PV panel waste classification. Furthermore, the estimation of solar waste PV, its categorization, management approaches, country guidelines and recycling of waste PV panels, were mainly focused in this study. Apart from this, the major leaching tests carried out for waste classification and PV waste recycling in different countries are also discussed. Solar PV waste generally categorized as a general waste by the regulatory aspect, except in the EU, since PV panels in these countries are described as e-waste as stated in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. To reinforce the recycling option, currently only Europe has mandated a strong regulatory guideline, however, other nations are preparing to set up particular system for solar panel waste management. In particular, this paper focuses on the potential risk caused by solar panels, data collection for PV waste and management approach like recycling. Besides, this review believes the basics of PV panel installation, management and recycling process which could recommend upcoming guidance for the public policymakers.

Circularity in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Comparison of a Manufacturer’s Danish and Norwegian Operations

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a reverse supply chain (RSC) has a low degree of circularity, mainly focusing on recovering or recycling. Targets to increase the circularity have recently been introduced in the EU WEEE directive. In this case study, we have investigated how WEEE is handled within an electric and electronic (EE) equipment manufacturer. The case study includes findings from two different Nordic countries, Norway and Denmark, with interviews of six stakeholders. The case study shows that there are significant differences in how the case company fulfills its extended producer responsibility (EPR), especially related to reporting. The study also found that there is a mismatch between the ambitions in the WEEE directive and a company’s approach related to circularity in the end-of-life phase of an EE product. Based on the results of this case study and from the literature we propose recommendations on alignment with other directives and on a common information regime within the WEEE RSC.

Utilization of manufactured sand as fine aggregates in electronic plastic waste concrete of M30 mix

Electronic waste generation is creating a major problem regarding the environment and human health. As per the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive of the European Union, E-waste is the waste material comprising of any wrecked or undesirable electronic apparatus which incorporates PCs, amusement gadgets, cell phones, and other electronic things that have been disposed of by their unique clients. It is estimated that 51 million tonnes of E-plastic waste have been generated globally in 2019 in which only 9.1% is reused. At present, the cost and demand for coarse aggregates are also increasing day by day. Usage of E-plastic waste as a halfway substitution for coarse totals won't just clear route for eco-accommodating or green concrete yet also decreases the gigantic heap of these wastes on the soil by which indigenous habitat is protected. This study focused on replacing natural coarse aggregates with E-plastic waste in the range of 0–16.5% and full replacement of fine aggregates with M-sand for M30 mix. The obtained results show that the 28 days compressive strength increased by up to 3% after 5.5% replacement of E-waste and then decreases for 11% and 6.5% replacement of E-waste. The Flexural strength results and Split tensile strength results show increment for 5.5% and 11% replacement and decrease for 16.5% replacement. Therefore, up to 11% replacement of coarse aggregates with E-plastic waste gives better results when compared with conventional concrete.

Experimental investigation of bituminous pavement (VG30) using E-waste plastics for better strength and sustainable environment

Abstract Electronic waste or E-waste refers to all items of electrical and electronic equipment and its parts that have been discarded by its owner as waste without the intent of reuse. According to waste electrical and electronic equipment directive of the European Union, E-waste material consisting of any broken or unwanted electronic appliance which includes computers, entertainment electronics, mobile phones, and other electronic items that have been discarded by their original users. E-waste is becoming burgeoning global issue, which showcases the impacts of the same on environment and on humans. It has been examined after several studies on E-waste that plastics are the second largest component by weight representing about 15%. Reuse of E-waste plastics as aggregates in some or other forms of in construction industry may be considered as economical and technically viable for solving the disposal of large amount of waste and this can be used as aggregates and fine filler in concrete or in the construction of flexible pavement. The objective of this study is to partially adding the E-waste plastic powder as alternative to conventional bitumen in the layer of flexible pavement to find the strength in the bituminous grade VG30, in different percentages viz., 5% to 20% in 100 g of bituminous to study its behaviour as per Indian standards. The results have shown that the E-waste plastic powder can be used in pavements along with the conventional bitumen for better strength for 5%, 10% and 15% replacement which shows better strength.

Concrete blend with E-waste plastic for sustainable future

Abstract Electronic waste or E-waste, according to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive of the European Union, is defined as waste material consisting of any broken or unwanted electronic appliance which includes computers, entertainment electronics, mobile phones, and other electronic items that have been discarded by their original users. According to WEEE, after several studies on E-waste, it has been examined that five categories of materials found in it viz., ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, glass, plastics, and others. 60% of metals found in E-waste in common and a plastic which is 15% are the second largest component by weight. Utilization of crushed E–waste materials in the building construction instead of conventional materials helps in reducing the cost of concrete manufacturing. The objectives of this experimental study is to partially replace the E-waste plastics for conventional coarse aggregate, to minimize the pollution by reusing the same in the required shape and to understand the behaviour of M20 concrete by conducting strength tests on it. The coarse aggregate was partially replaced with different percentages of E-waste plastic by volume from 0 to 20% and based on the lab tests as per IS standards it as conclude that the utilization of plastic aggregate in concrete reduces the unit weight of concrete thus reduction in dead weight of the structure and hence it can be consumed as a light weight concrete. The value of slump cone is kept on increasing which shows the inadaptability of plastic to absorb water. Compressive strength and flexural strength decreases with increase in the percentage of E-waste whereas the split tensile increases with the increment which shows that E-waste plastics can be used as an alternative material in proper ratio.

Determining Environmental Costs: A Challenge in A Governmental E-Waste Recycling Scheme

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) concept involves having producers take environmental responsibility for post-consumer products. Based on this principle, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the European Union, enacted in 2006, is the most representative management program in the world and the most popular recycling policy many countries follow. Taiwan’s version of EPR for WEEE recycling, set up in 1998, had a focus on recycling fees determined by a recycling fee equation. Nowadays, the equation takes into account the consideration of the environment in the designs of products, in addition to the cost needed for recycling. The environmental performance upgrades in products, encouraged by the financial incentives from these considerations, is a side-benefit of this program. In this paper, the functions of the recycling fee equation that consider environmental costs are reviewed. It was found that in spite of the difficulty in determining the real environmental costs in practice, pricing is a mechanism which helps us to consider the cost of e-waste recycling, not only in terms of labor and administration, but also environmental quality.

Analysis on public perception, user-satisfaction, and publicity for WEEE collecting system in South Korea: A case study for Door-to-Door Service

The South Korean government is applying the Target Management System (TMS) for collecting and recycling electrical and electronic equipment waste under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Based on the TMS, approximately 280,230 t of WEEE-compliant waste was recycled in 2017. Building on these recycling achievements, Korea government established a secondary long-term target about 8.6 kg/cap yr. by 2023 as there is sufficient interest in building and managing an efficient WEEE collecting channel in Korea. In this study, we investigate the current status of public perception, user satisfaction, and public relation (PR), as well as strategies that focus on promoting the door-to-door (D-to-D) service, a free public collecting channel in Korea. A survey questionnaire was conducted using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method with stratified sample of 2000 interviewees. The survey results indicated that nearly one in two people (48.2%) were aware of the D-to-D service, and this percentage was higher than the annual surveys for the last three years. In addition, 90.7% of the users of the D-to-D service expressed a positive opinion, particularly with regards to the service being available for free. From the PR perspective, 58.9% of respondents felt that current PR level were unsatisfied despite many outstanding advantages of the D-to-D service, and 86.0% of respondents stated that the frequency of the PR activities for the D-to-D service should be increased. These results are expected to utilize as basic information to establish future-strategies for improving the service quality of D-to-D system with vulnerability complement.

Recycling potential for low voltage and high voltage high rupturing capacity fuse links

Low voltage and high voltage high-rupturing-capacity fuse links are used in LV and HV installations respectively, protecting mainly the LV and HV electricity distribution and transportation networks. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (2002/96/EC) for “Waste of electrical and electronic equipment” is the main related legislation and as it concerns electrical and electronic equipment, it includes electric fuses. Although, the fuse links consist of recyclable materials, only small scale actions have been implemented for their recycling around Europe. This work presents the possibilities for material recovery from this specialized industrial waste for which there are only limited volume data. Furthermore, in order to present the huge possibilities and environmental benefits, it presents the potential for recycling of HRC fuses used by the Public Power Corporation of Greece, which is the major consumer for the country, but one of the smallest ones in Europe and globally, emphasizing in this way in the issue. According to the obtained results, fuse recycling could contribute to the effort for minimize the impacts on the environment through materials recovery and reduction of the wastes’ volume disposed of in landfills.

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and the European Union's electrical and electronic equipment directives

The growth of the generation of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), and the use of hazardous substances in the production of these items, has required legislation to minimise the harm to the environment that their existing use, ultimate disposal and continued growth of the sector may pose. The European Union (EU) started to tackle this problem with the passing of two Directives in 2002, which focused on restricting the use of hazardous substances (RoHS - 2002/95/EC) and organising the recycling or disposal of discarded electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE - 2002/96/EC). These Directives have been recently recast and their scope widened; however, one exception to them remains items specifically designed for defence and military purposes. This paper looks at how and why these European Directives were passed, the impact they have had on defence in the United Kingdom (UK) up to the present moment, what impact the further extension of those directives might have on UK defence policy and how the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has begun to prepare for any extension, including the use of alternative products from the commercial market, and substituting less harmful materials. The paper reviews the information available to carry out future decision making and what level of decision making it can support. Where the data is insufficient, it makes recommendations on actions to take for improvement.

A multi-objective model for selecting design alternatives and end-of-life options under uncertainty: A sustainable approach

Sustainable product design, which focuses on evaluating the future impacts of products at the design stage, is an important task for the achievement of sustainability goals. A product's designer has significant freedom at the design stage, so end-of-life (EOL) considerations can be taken into account at this stage. This paper presents a bicriteria stochastic optimization model based on individual extended producer responsibility to improve product EOL management by considering life cycle issues at the product design stage. The objectives are the maximization of the total profit and the minimization of the product's environmental impact with respect to regulatory restrictions, such as the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive. Uncertainties are considered, to mitigate risks of unknown information that may come to light in the future. Various risk measures are used in the model. A simulation-based method is presented to determine the model's Pareto optimal solutions. A hypothetical case study is provided, and several sensitivity analyses are carried out. Results show that the regulatory restriction strongly affects the number of Pareto optimal solutions. Moreover, taking environmental considerations into account results in a significant profit reduction. It is also observed that using different risk measures yields considerably different sets of Pareto optimal solutions.

Management of waste electrical and electronic equipment in Romania: A mini-review.

Around the world there are growing concerns for waste electrical and electronic equipment. This is motivated by the harmful effects of waste electrical and electronic equipment on the environment, but also by the perspectives of materials recovery. Differences between countries regarding waste electrical and electronic equipment management are notable in the European Union. Romania is among the countries that have made significant efforts to comply with European Union regulations, but failed reaching the collection target. The article presents a mini review of the waste electrical and electronic equipment management system in Romania, based on legislation and policy documents, statistical data, research studies and reports published by national and international organisations. The article debates subjects like legislative framework, the electrical and electronic equipment Romanian market, the waste electrical and electronic equipment collection system, waste electrical and electronic equipment processing and waste electrical and electronic equipment behaviour. The recast of the European directive brings new challenges to national authorities and to other stakeholders involved in the waste electrical and electronic equipment management. Considering the fact that Romania has managed a collection rate of roughly 1 kg capita(-1) in the last years, the new higher collection targets established by the waste electrical and electronic equipment Directive offer a serious challenge for the management system. Therefore, another aim of the article is to highlight the positive and negative aspects in the Romanian waste electrical and electronic equipment field, in order to identify the flows that should be corrected and the opportunities that could help improve this system to the point of meeting the European standards imposed by the European Directive.

Scrap automotive electronics: A mini-review of current management practices

End-of-life vehicles, together with waste from electric and electronic equipment, are known as an important source of secondary raw materials. For many years, their recovery has allowed the restoring of great amounts of metals for new cars production. This article provides a comprehensive mini-review on the end-of-life vehicles recycling topic between 2000 and 2014, with a particular focus on automotive electronics recycling. In fact, in the last years, experts focused their attention on a better exploitation of automotive shredder residue fraction, but not sufficiently on eventual electronic scraps embedded in it. Hence, studies assessing the value embedded in these scraps are rarely available in literature, causing an important gap in both recycling policies and research. The fact that, at present, the management of electronic control units (the most valuable component among automotive electronic equipment) is, as yet, off the radar in both end-of-life vehicles and waste from electric and electronic equipment Directives demonstrates the theory. Of course, their recycling would not contribute in a relevant way to reach the weighted-based recycling and recovery targets characterising current regulations, but would be very important under a critical raw materials recovery view. Results coming from the literature analysis confirm these assumptions.

Closed‐Loop Supply Chains for Photovoltaic Panels: A Case‐Based Approach

SummaryPhotovoltaic (PV) waste is expected to significantly increase. However, legislation on producer responsibility for the collection and recovery of PV panels is limited to the European Union (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive Recast, which lays down design, collection, and recovery measures. Academic knowledge of closed‐loop supply chains (CLSCs) for PV panels is scarce. We analyze the supply chain using multiple cases involving the main stakeholders in the design, production, collection, and recovery of PV panels. Our article answers two research questions: How does the PV supply chain operate, and what are critical factors affecting the reverse supply chain management of used panels? Our research seeks to fill the gap in the CLSC literature on PV panels, as well as to identify barriers and enablers for PV panel design, collection, and recycling.

Analysis of end-of-life treatments of commercial refrigerating appliances: Bridging product and waste policies

This paper analyses the relationships between product design and end-of-life treatment, but also between product and waste policies, based on a relevant case study. Commercial refrigerating appliance is a suitable case study due to its recent inclusions in the scope of two important European pieces of legislation, the Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment Directive and the Ecodesign Directive. Commercial refrigerating appliances are business to business products with several peculiarities such as: customized design, high range of dimensions, content of complex electronic components and parts difficult to treat and recycle. The method used for the analysis: formalization, through literature review and survey of recycling plants, of treatments applied to the studied waste product; investigation of problems and difficulties in the recycling plants; identification of possible product-related improvement strategies; definition of workable product design options. For the analysis of actual recycling practices, data has been gathered through interviews with four European recyclers, and by consulting manufacturers and other experts of these products. Several potential design options to improve the recyclability of these products are identified and discussed, such as the design for dismantling of some key components, the restriction of some blowing agents and the labeling of insulation foams. The article finally shows how the enforcement of these design features, in particular through mandatory product policies such as the Ecodesign Directive, could facilitate their end-of-life treatment and hence ease the compliance with the waste legislation.

The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive: The Implementation of Producer Responsibility Across the Eu-27

The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive: The Implementation of Producer Responsibility Across the Eu-27