Closing the loop of small WEEE – life cycle based approach for the evaluation of end-of-life strategies on the example of coffee machines

Abstract

Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe. Only 42.5 % of WEEE is collected and recycled with even lower rates for small WEEE, leading to significant environmental pressures. Applying end-of-life (EoL) strategies helps to ensure raw material availability, increases price resilience and reduces environmental impacts.

This study analyses greenhouse gas (GHG) and cost saving potentials of EoL strategies (recycling, component reuse, remanufacturing and reuse), performed by manufacturers with own take-back systems. A life cycle assessment (LCA), including production, transport and EoL, is conducted to measure the GHG emissions, followed by a unit cost calculation. The results are compared with current practices of WEEE disposal, including WEEE in centralised collection and recycling system (WEEE recycling). As a representative for small EEE, the use case is based on a coffee machine.

The LCA shows that manufacturers have great potential to reduce their products' emissions over the life cycle by taking back WEEE and implementing EoL strategies in-house. Thereby, GHG emissions can be reduced by 15–39 % over the life cycle compared to the WEEE recycling, whereby reuse and remanufacturing strategies have the highest reduction potential.

Moreover, all analysed EoL strategies have the potential to reduce unit costs compared to linear production of a new machine. While the recycling scenario has the lowest cost savings at 7.7 % (new machine with recycled content), the reuse scenario can reduce unit costs by 66.5 % (tested and cleaned only) compared to the status quo.