Evaluating obsolete electronic products for disassembly, material recovery and environmental impact through a decision support system

Abstract

As personal computers and electronic products get obsolete and loose value for the original owner they are being channeled into recycling stream for reuse, remanufacturing and asset recovery. Product take-back programs set up reverse logistics processes for such owners to return equipment they no longer want. In the electronics industry, generally these programs are run by specific manufacturers, but any brand of equipment can be returned. Due to this spurt in end-of-life product recycling programs a new problem has been encountered on the business side. An increasing number of electronic product, characterized by different model, year, brand, type, material etc., are entering recycler's warehouses. To attain sustainable and environmentally sound product recycling these products have to be first disassembled and recycled for material recovery. Recyclers are also required to ensure that hazardous waste is treated separately while recycling. Lack of information on disassembly methods and material information on these products could lead to incoherent decisions. This could affect profit margins as well as lead to inappropriate end-of-life treatment. An information system is therefore needed to aid decision making for adopting best possible end-of-life strategy for electronic products. Proposed system provides easy access to recyclers on different electronic models about optimal disassembly sequence, cost and time, gives information on hazardous and precious element contents, and composition of different components. This paper presents the results of such a system developed at Texas Tech University and tested at a recycling facility. This system further allows environmental impact assessment of the electronic products based on their material inventory using eco-indicator 99 scores. These scores can be of significance in determining products or components which have the highest environment impact and should be given special attention while recycling. A personal computer, laptop, printer, server and a flat panel monitor were analyzed for this study. System architecture, product information and system results are presented in this paper.