CLEVER - Closed Loop Emotionally Valuable E-waste Recovery

在消费增加的推动下，消费电子产品的快速周转导致了负面的全球环境和社会后果。这些电器通常被处理到英国的垃圾填埋场或发展中国家，焚烧或以其他方式“丢失”-很少被回收利用。因此，它们所含的金属不能有效地回收，必须提取新的材料来生产更多的产品。据报道，超过一半的英国家庭对小家电的使用寿命不满意，认为他们应该使用更长时间，然而，虽然已经开发了几种延长产品寿命的策略，但它们在消费电子市场中没有得到充分利用。材料短缺，特别是不可再生的有限资源，是一个全球关注的问题，也是英国消费者和制造商不能忽视的问题。为了更有效地利用这些资源并减少不断增加的电子垃圾（电子垃圾），必须鼓励消费者更长时间地保留他们的设备，并在其使用寿命结束时（或之前）将其归还。为了帮助从当前的“一次性”社会过渡到一个新的模式，我们将开发一个以功能为导向的商业模式，称为产品服务系统，它将重点从设计（和销售）物理产品转移到设计（和销售）一个包含服务和所有权的产品和服务系统，这两个系统共同能够满足消费者的需求。在这个系统中，具有“低情感价值”但需要定期技术升级的部件（如印刷电路板或柔性电路）将由制造商拥有并租赁给客户，而潜在的“高情感价值”部件（如外壳）由客户拥有和评估，因此它们成为长期保存的产品。在这个项目中，这些部分被称为“皮肤”——外壳，或者用户直接与之交互的部分；“骨架”——设备内部的关键支撑部件；还有“器官”——提供功能的高科技电子设备，它们需要是设备中最先进的部件。为了鼓励对产品更大的情感依恋，将开发“优雅老化”的新材料，并探索消费者对这些材料的反应。为了快速有效地回收部件，进行再循环和金属回收，将设计和生产基于生物聚合物的新型骨架材料。这些材料最重要的特点是，它们在使用过程中是稳定和坚固的，但当设备被拆开回收时，它们可能会被触发分解。这种对设备内部的触发拆卸将有助于回收含有电子“器官”的贵重金属，以便这些金属可以有效地回收并保留在电子制造的闭环中。该项目还将处理电子设备中所含的一些最有价值的金属的有效回收和再循环。在每个发展阶段，都会对拟议的公共安全设施和材料进行社会和环境分析，以确定任何负面影响。这些材料和新的产品服务系统将提高资源效率，有助于减少温室气体排放（导致气候变化），减少每年垃圾填埋的环境成本（估计为2.11亿英镑），同时实现金属的有效回收，从而最大限度地利用资源，降低成本，并通过减少对进口的依赖来提高英国的复原力。将电子设备保持在一个闭环中也意味着它们不太可能成为出口到发展中国家的电子废物的一部分（有时是非法的），在发展中国家，人们可能冒着生命危险通过燃烧或冶炼可能释放二恶英或使用汞的过程来回收有价值的金属。

The rapid turnover in consumer electronics, fuelled by increased consumption, has resulted in negative global environmental and social consequences. These appliances are typically disposed of into UK landfills or to developing countries, incinerated, or otherwise 'lost' - very few are recycled. As a result, the metals they contain are not effectively recovered and new materials must be extracted to produce more goods. Reportedly more than half of all UK households are dissatisfied with how long small household appliances last and think they should last longer, yet, while several strategies to extend product lifespans have been developed, they are under-utilized within the consumer electronics market. Materials scarcity, particularly of non-renewable, finite resources, is a global concern and one that UK consumers and manufacturers cannot ignore. To use these resources more efficiently and reduce mounting electronic waste (e-waste), consumers must be encouraged to retain their devices for longer and return them at the end of their life (or before). To assist in a transition from the current 'throw-away' society towards a new model we will develop a function-oriented business model, called a Product Service System, which shifts the focus from designing (and selling) physical products only, to designing (and selling) a system of products and services incorporating both service and ownership, which are jointly capable of fulfilling consumer needs. In this system component parts with 'low-emotional value', but requiring regular technical upgrade (such as the printed circuit board or flexible circuits) will be owned by manufacturers and leased to customers, and potentially "high-emotional value" components (such as the outer casing) are owned and valued by the customer, so that they become products that are kept for long periods of time. In this project these parts are termed the 'skin' - the outer casing, or the part that the user interacts with directly; the 'skeleton' - the critical support components inside the device; and the 'organs' - the high-tech electronics that deliver the function and which need to be the most up-to-date parts of the device. To encourage greater emotional attachment to products, new materials which 'age gracefully' will be developed and consumer responses to these materials explored. To recover component parts quickly and efficiently for recycling and metals recovery, new skeleton materials based on biopolymers will be designed and produced. The most important characteristic of these materials is that they will be stable and robust while in use, but can be triggered to decompose when the device is to be taken apart for recycling. Such triggered disassembly of the innards of the device will facilitate the recovery of the valuable metal containing electronic 'organs' so that these can be efficiently recycled and retained in the closed loop of electronics manufacture. The project will also address the efficient recovery and recycling of some of the most valuable metals contained in electronic devices.At each stage of development, a social and environmental analysis of the proposed PSS and materials will be undertaken to identify any negative impacts. Together these materials and the new product-service system will enable greater resource efficiency and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (which contribute to climate change) and reducing annual environmental costs of waste being sent to landfill (estimated at £211m), while enabling efficient recovery of metals, thus maximizing use of resources, reducing costs, and improving UK resilience by reducing reliance on imports.Keeping electronic devices in a closed loop also means they are less likely to become part of the e-waste exported (sometimes illegally) to developing countries, where people may risk their lives to recover the valuable metals by burning, or smelting, processes that may release dioxins, or use mercury.