Service lifetime and disposal pathways of business devices

Abstract

Product lifetimes and disposal pathways are essential aspects of dynamic material flow analyses (MFAs), which have often been used to model stocks and flows of electronic devices and the resources they contain. Existing studies mainly focus on the use and disposal of electronic devices by private consumers. The specific handling of business devices has rarely been assessed. This article presents the results of a study conducted in Switzerland in 2015, comprising interviews with 28 companies. Devices included are desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones, monitors, televisions, external hard disk drives and servers. Results are compared to data collected from Swiss private consumers. The service lifetime and disposal pathways are fed into a dynamic MFA model to calculate the stocks and flows of business devices. With the example of indium, neodymium and gold, the material resources contained in these stocks and flows are illustrated.