The present study assesses on the role of ecodesign strategies to promote improvements in life cycle disposal phases, as well as the production phase of the.
I C-3-2F DfR and DfD Applied to Electrical and Electronic Equipments Resulting Environmental Life Cycle Performance - A Case Study for Portugal Eduardo Santos and Paulo Ferrao
1N+, Centerfor Innovation, Technology and Policy Research, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal edsanto( JemsuMlpt ferrao(i&Lem. ist.utpt Abstract The present study assesses on the role of ecodesign strategies to promote improvements in life cycle environmental performance of electrical and electronic equipment. Through the use of a simplified LCA methodology, the life cycle environmental impacts of mobile phone equipments of successive product generationsfrom one manufacturer were determined. LCA results have demonstrated that improvements in general product environmental performance can be obtained, although in some specific environmental impact categories, such improvements were limited. With the newly implemented WEEE management system in Portugal, the study on Df? and DJD strategies has showed that DfR's potential for product environmental performance enhancement is limited, as recycling is still not very efficient and is dependent on multiple operations that have environmental impacts themselves. DID, on the other hand, has proved to be an important strategy in reducing life cycle environmental impacts if it manages to promote product/component reuse. Key words: ecodesign strategies, design for recycling, design for disassembly, electrical and electronic equipment, life cycle environmental impacts
1. Introduction
1.1. Motivation for Ecodesign
technologies, systems and infrastructures implemented for
the different life cycle stages can be very influential for the product's environmental and economical impacts. In light of this, it becomes important to assess and evaluate true life cycle improvements that given products can achieve maldng use of ecodesign.
In the past two decades, environmental concern has focused on production processes, and environmental regulation has concentrated on pollution from industry. However, there is growing awareness that this may not be sufficient and it is increasingly recognized that the use and
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disposal phases, as well as the production phase of the product life cycle, are important. At present, ecodesign (in particular Design for Environment - DME) is a well developed concept, dating back more than ten years, and increasingly acknowledged in its importance (Charter and Tischner 2001 [1]). To be effective and efficient, ecodesign should be integrated into the design process of a company and considered from the very start of a project just as any other technical or economic requirement. Ecodesign implies the consideration of environmental aspects, such as energy consumption, reduction and recovery of end-of-life waste, substitution of hazardous substances, and many others, in each step of the product development process (product planning, development of processes, purchasing, manufacturing and sales) (Quella 2000 [2]). Experiences of implementing ecodesign in industry indicate that it is a complex task, as it requires the combination of various established and new disciplines (Mathieux et al. [31). On the basis for ecodesign implementation stand environmental and economical benefits. The actual benefits resulting from ecodesign depend on the specificity of the product's life cycle, which in turn is influenced by the intervenients of each life cycle stage. The manufacturers, suppliers, users and end-of-life processors are critical for the total product's life cycle environmental and economical impacts. Likewise, the
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1.2. Focus in the Electrical and Electronic Equipments
product specific literature and websites. Information on the products life cycle stages - production, use and end of life - resulted from a literature survey. This was complemented by visits to intervenients in the product life cycle in Portugal, such as WEEE processing and recycling facilities. The improvements from one product generation to the next have been analyzed and related to product design and development strategies that have been applied to promote environmental benefiting characteristics, namely design for recycling (DfD) and design for dismantling (DfR), but also other strategies focusedinthe different aspects ofthe product's life cycle.
The electronics industry is a major actor in the European economy. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMlE's) in this sector are an outstanding driver of innovation and new product ideas. However, this success story is at the same time linked to certain environmental concems. For example, home and office appliances consume more than 25% of final electricity use, and domestic lighting is responsible for 17% of all residential energy use (Schischke et al. 2005 [4]), with a high proportion of this energy going on wasted heat rather than light generation. When an electronic product is placed on
sale it is likely that it has been made from a variety of globally sourced and manufactured parts, which perhaps
2. Integrating product design
have already travelled several times around the world. The complexity of electrical and electronic devices means they contain a large variety of materials, some very specific to electronics, some known as hazardous for humans and the environment. All these are reasons, why the electronics industry has an important role to play over environmental protection. Understanding the whole product life cycle and, especially, the product disposal stage including collection, treatment, and ultimate disposal can be the key stage to the success of product improvement from the viewpoint of the environmental improvement as well as cost savings (European Commission 2002). This is particularly true for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in light of the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) of 2002 [5]. Analysis of the environmental aspects of a product allows identification
in
In recent years, the informnation on ecodesign has greatly increased allowing designers to gain some understanding on the subject. As previously mentioned, DfE is the systematic consideration of design issues related to environmental and human health over the life cycle of the product (Hwang et al. [7]). The following aspects are included in design for the environment: manufacture without producing hazardous waste, use of clean technologies, reduce product chemical emissions, reduce product energy consumption, use of non-hazardous recyclable materials, use of recycled material and reused components, design for ease of disassembly and product reuse or recycling at end of life (Wittenberg 1993 [8]).
2.2. Design for Recycling and Design for Disassembly
product throughout its entire life cycle. The strategies include not only improvement in product itself but also in product and material life cycle such as waste disposal pathway (Fiksel 1993 [6]).
Design for the Environent encompasses many issues including Design for Disassembly and Design for
Recycling. The importance of these ecodesign strategies became apparent as recovering parts and materials from end-of-life products increased in popularity. Efficient disassembly combined with recycling a product by shredding, can provide additional benefits (Wang and
1.3. Research approach The current research involved the analysis of electrical and lecroni eqipmnts from romaa life lie cycle cclepersectve, and electronic equipments perspective. The analysis has been made on case studies focused on mobile phones, as these electronic equipments have shown improvements in
issues
2.1. Design for Environment
and prioritization of product elements requiring improvement. At the same time, the analysis also helps to determine environmental improvement strategies for a
great
environmental
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adequate quality can be refurbished or reused; metallic parts can be separated into categories which increases their recycling value; disassembled plastic parts can be easily removed and recycled; parts made from other material such as glass or hazardous material can easily be separated adrpoesd and reprocessed. Design for Disassembly principles are concerned with for for disassembly, disassembly r n e recycling but T can be areused divided inothe of o
thelastdecade,andthemobile
goreatnimpovents indsthe lastecthad be,and acthvem ile s industi ecor ceveomnicatons hastbee. developing and implementing ecodesign practices.
The research methodology was based on simplified life cycle assessment of mobile phones from successive product generations commercialized and used in Portugal. The information on products was gathered from dismntlig ananayzin speificunit andalsofrom
categories which are related to the three important areas of
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3.1.1. Assessment scenarios. In the present study, the life cycle environmental performance was determined for each of the mobile phone equipments assessed. Additionally, the two following scenarios were introduced to assess the potential environmental benefits of increased reusability and recyclability of the mobile phone equipments through the application of specific ecodesign strategies: 'Design for recycling', increase in the recycling rates attained by recycling the equipments and 'Design for disassembly', increase in reuse rates of the equipments. In order to establish control references, four other ecodesign strategy related scenarios were assessed, namely 'Low impact materials', replacing hazardous substances [12] [13]; 'Reduction of impact during use', reducing energy consumption during use of the mobile phone equipments, 'Change of power unit', use of low impact batteries in the equipments an 'Strategies combined', with the combination of all previously mentioned scenarios.
disassembly and recycling: materials, enabling the disassembled materials to be easily recycled but the principles can apply equally to disassembled parts for remanufacture or reuse; fasteners and connections, enabling easy and quick disassembly; product structure, enabling rapid and economic disassembly (Yagasaki et al. [10]). Although most products can be disassembled eventually, lengthy disassembly does not make for economic recycling as the cost of disassembly is likely to be much larger than the revenue gained from recycling the parts and materials from the product. It is for this reason that designing products for recycling and disassembly has increased in popularity enabling more of the product to be recycled and reused economically (Dowie-Bhamra [1]).
3. Life cycle assessment of mobile phones 3.1. Goal and Scope Ecodesign strategies applied in the process of product design are meant to have repercussions in product performance, allowing for improvements in life cycle environ-mental impacts and also costs. However, as the whole life cycle of a product is strongly dependent on the specificities of the time and place where the life stages occur, how effective Design for Environment really is? This paper is intended to assess the environmental sustainability of several ecodesign strategies applied to mobile phone equipments, considering the newly developed and still m the early sages of implementation WEEEWEEE collection and recycling Portugal. Therv Th colectionand ystem inn Portual. reycling system specific goal of the LCA is to determine the environmental impats o satofmobie pone quipentsand hen determine the potential changes on the environmental perfornance of those same equipments as a result of applying ecodesign strategies. The environmental impacts are assessed taking into account all major life cycle phases like raw material extraction, manufacturing, use, disassembly and disposal of the products and the needed infrastructure. For the purpose of determining the environmental impacts of mobile phones, 2 models were chosen, from successive product generations,S from . one manufacturer. . 1. . This study considers second generation mobile phones with the characteristics presented in Table 1. Table 1. Mobile phone specifications mobile A mobile B Specifications Year 2001 1998 165 107 Weight (g) Generation 2G 2G 500 (Ni-MH) 700 (N4i-MH) Battery (mAh) 109 x 46 x 23 137 x 55 x 22 Dimens. (mm) 3 5 alk time (h) 200 80 Stand-by (h)
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3.2. Functional unit The functional unit in the present assessment was the use
ofunctione,uitinterysentargessmentaveuse of a mobile phone, itS battery and charger, for an average
daily use, that meant the complete discharge of the battery every 2 days, considering an average life time of 1 year.
3.3. System definition The assessment accounted the environental aspects from the raw material extraction and processing, the components manufacturing and assembly and the transport of the products to the retailers in Portugal. Components toth infrastructure oponentsof rastiuotugal. oftes prdcts, network and operations sales packaging, of the the mobile retailers were left out ofa the scope s assessment. The cut-off rules applied are associated with
the werseinclued.
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3.3.1. Manufacture phase. The production stage for a mobile phone is made of numerous operations that successively shape the materials into different components and finally the finished product. As complex products, electrical and electronic products in general and mobile in particular, have many components that are ~~~~~~~~phones manufactured in different locations worldwide. The production life cycle stage in the present assessment accounted for processes and materials involved in manufacturing and assembly of components and equipments, from the raw materials until the finished product, ready for distribution. For distribution purposes, it was assumed that the mobile phones were assembled in Germany, and then transported to Portugal for commercialization. Based on the physical analysis of the equipments, the materials and processes that have been used to produce each part were determined.
3.3.2. Use phase. This stage is critical for life cycle enviromnental perfornance; the main reason for that is the energy consumption associated with product use. Environmental impacts derived from energy use and the consequent electricity production needed, generally, represent about one third of the entire life cycle environmental burden of electrical and electronic products. In this assessment the use scenario considered moderate use of several phone features, mainly involving communication features - calls and text messages. The use of the mobile phones accounted for the duration of the battery charge, between recharges that were done every 48 hours. The recharge lasted the full recharging time, and the charger was removed from the power slot afterwards.
EEE's, WEEE's and by-products of intermediate operations. These flows implicate transportation activities (referred as T in Figure 1), that were accounted in the LCA.
4. Results 4.1. Environmental impacts The methodology used in the life cycle impact assessment correlates the inventory inputs and outputs of the product letcycledwat the En onm imats caused. The metous wsthe eco-imdicto 99 [14], which
4.1.1. Environmental profile. The environmental profile of the mobile phones is a very characteristic one. For both mobile phone models, the assessment showed a promninence of the use phase as the main contributor to the life cycle environmental burden, closely followed by the manufacturing and assembly phase. The distribution is responsible for a very small part of the overall environmental load and the end-of-life phase shows a negative contribution to all but three environmental impact categories, as it means the avoidance of environmental impacts due to the reuse and recycling of components and materials. Figure 2 shows that the environmental impacts for the older model (mobile A) life cycle are focused in the environmental impact categories of 'Fossil fuels', 'Respiratory inorganics' and 'Minerals'. This is consequence, mainly, of the energy consumption during the phone's use phase and the materials used in manufacturing. A similar profile was found for the more ~recent mobile phone (mobile B). This chart, as the ones that follow, indicate the environmental impacts in normaized values to theyearly environmental impacts of the European average citizen.
3.3.3. End-of-life phase. As waste electrical and electronic equipments, the discarded mobile phones are collected and processed in the respective WEEE processing system to be implemented in Portugal. This system was designed to meet the needs and targets specified in the Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and the Council [5] and it involves the application of best available techniques in processing WEEE. Still in the early stage of implementation, the WEEE management system in Portugal is an integrated management system, which means that producers - the holders of legal responsibility for the end-of-life treatment of WEEE - transfer their responsibility to the entity that was constituted to manage all the different parts in order to achieve the recycling of discarded equipments. I..
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accordingly to the figure above. The intervenients in the entire system are the EEE mianufacturers/importers,_J~X retailers/distributors, private and non private users, temporary storage centers and ecocenters and the WEEE recyclers. Between these there are a number of flows of
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0
older mobile phone model with integrated DfR and DfD design strategies.
4.1.2. Evolution over two successive product generations. The two mobile phones addressed in the present study constitute products from two successive generations of mobile phones, separated by a 3 year difference. The technical evolution present from one product to the next can also be observed in their respective environmental performances. The late model has shown important environmental gains, with reduced environmental impacts in all environmental impact categories, for the same service level provided (although with the ability to provide better service level, as it integrates more functions). This is mainly related to a decrease in electricity consumption during use and the reduction in materials for manufacturing and assembly, and consequently in the energy consumed in operations during these stages.
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Figure 4. Evolution of environmental performance with DfR and DfD strategies applied The environmental performance of the older mobile phone is improved in the majority of environmental impact categories as a consequence of introducing DfR ii and DfD features in the product's design. The improvements verified as consequence of DfD are more 0X l;: tXILf | substantial than those coming from DfR, as the first allows increase 6000; 4vfor ;-ii ti in reuse of components and materials, which ;04 0:is;iX.lt
present greater environmental benefits than the increase in I S i frecycling from DfR. With recycling it is still necessary to 0 ;- Vi X consume energy to separate the constituents of a product .mto the individual materials. Reuse, on the other hand, Figure 3. Evolution of the environmental allows for direct of manufactured components performance from model A to model as m to the new or refurbished products, saving energy and resources in the process, and thus avoiding additional i ;e;; ;XXg0}0
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environmental impacts.
4.2. Design for Recycling (DfR) and Design for Disassembly (DfD) scenarios
Although the application of DfR and DfD strategies shows the ability to improve the current environmental performnance of the mobile phone, the reality is that the improvements are scarce, especially if this is to be compared against the current environmental performance of the newer mobile phone model, visible on Figure 4. It is evident that DfR and DfD strategies alone have a limited potential for improvement, and that further strategies have to be applied in order to achieve greater environmental benefits.
From the regular environmental profile of both mobile phones, the potential environmental benefits from the application of DfR and DfD strategies to the product design were tested. This involved the introduction of improved recycling and reuse rates from the ones on the original life cycle model. Table 2. Features for DfR and DfD scenarios Scenario Recycling rate (%) Reuse rate (%)6 0 54 Original 0 80 DfR 54 20 DfD
4.3. Other strategies Other ecodesign strategies that can be integrated in product design to promote environmental gains to the product's life cycle were tested, in order to assess the potential benefits. 'Hazard', 'Energy', 'Li-ion battery' and 'Strategies combined' involved, respectively, the removal of hazardous substances, the reduction in energy
Figure 4 shows the environmental impacts for the current use of each of the studied mobile phones - the older and the newer one. For the same conditions, you can also observe the potential environmental impacts of the
196
'Respiratory inorganics' and 'Fossil fuels'. This is a result of reduced resource consumption to produce electricity and also reduced emissions to air and water. The integration of a new Li-ion battery replacing the current Ni-MH introduces significant improvements to the mobile phone's environmental performance. In some enviromrental impact categories, the result is even better than the environmental impact of the current newer model. The overall environmental performance of the more recent mobile phone model is clearly less damaging to the environment than the same performance of the old mobile phone with any of the individual strategies applied. However, the combined application of all tested strategies would potentially generate a smaller environmental load on all environmental impact categories but one, than the more recent mobile phone model. This fact just outlines the significance of what would mean to apply the referred strategies to the most recent model in this analysis, and all new mobile phones on the market.
consumption during use, the integration of a Li-ion battery in the mobile phone equipment and the combination of all of the strategies previously mentioned in the paper. Table 3. Features for additional scenarios Features Scenarios Removal of hazardous substances (see Hazard [12]). Reduction of energy consumption to the Energy level ofthe more recent mobile phone. Li-ion battery Integration of a Li-ion battery, replacing the Ni-MH. strategies all of Combination Strategies simultaneously, including DfR and DfD. combined Figure 5 illustrates the environmental performnance of the mobile phone equipments with the different strategies tested, and also the environmental perfornance for the current equipments. These last constitute the references of analysis for the impacts of the application of the referred ecodesign strategies.
The present study has shown the potential environmental gains from applying ecodesign strategies in NIeoelYrrvcAdIktge ieLfenvdW8 the design and development of mobile phone equipments t0E0 in particular, and in electrical and electronic products in 00 00 t0:0) 0 4, 0 t At 3flE:04 general. Ecodesign strategies, as a part of the entire [& 0 0: t; ecodesign process are determining to promote sustainable 5 31E04 e:Zi; 0 and electronic products, and have proved the :00 0 | electrical 0; 0 5 06 value of its potential contribution to the product's f 7: f X 1 15EN. environmental performance. 05;;Design for recycling brings slight improvements in 0 f;0 S terms of environmental impacts of the mobile phones entire life cycle. Presently, recycling of WEEE in Portugal involves many operations and relies on technologies that A allow efficient separation of only a limited number of 00f;yi0t7i;|0 } 0t t; §Lt$ 0 I 4 materials, namely metals which constitute the biggest r g-F;0¢ti ti 0 §; d jR l 00§ | 0 i t -: fractions in the products material composition, the a environmental benefits from using recycled materials Figure 5. Evolution of environmental become small. On the other hand, design for dismantling performance with various strategies applied allows for increase reuse of products and components. This brings important environmental benefits, as most of The use of low impact materials has shown only a very the environmental impacts associated with production and slight potential for improvement on the general the product end-of-life destinations such as landfill and environmental performance of the original equipment. The incineration can be prevented. removal of the hazardous substances from the product's The electronics industry has been improving products constitution has proven to be marginally beneficial in the in terms of their environmental performance. In such majority of the environmental impact categories, due to process, the use phase is crucial, as it is during this stage the small quantities present in the phones' material that most energy is consumed and consequently the as such substances of composition. The absence environmental impacts, although indirect, are generated. Chromium, Lead and Mercury, has economic advantages, This makes energy efficiency a priority in electrical and as it avoids the use of expensive manual operations for development. and design product electronic cleaning the wasted equipments before recycling. Simultaneously, the integration of new environmentally The reduction on impact during use, from reducing the superior components, as batteries for example, is energy consumption, brings somewhat significant important as it can have great potential for overall environmental benefits, namely in the categories of ol feccdermxblA
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5. Conclusion
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[13] Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS), 2003. [14] The Ecoindicator 99, A Damage Oriented Method For Life Cycle Impact Assessment, Methodology Report, Ministry of
The performance improvement. environmental combination of all ecodesign strategies, however, can promote the most improvements in electronic product environmental performance.
Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Hague, The
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