Dell Survey of Electronic Recyclers Results and Analysis

Puneet Shrivastava, Scott OConnell, Mike Watson, Dell Inc.

impacts of their products throughout their lifecycle and evaluate alternative design solutions. EU WEEE directive [2] article 4 encourages manufacturers to design products which facilitate dismantling and recovery, in particular reuse and recycling. Certain states in US for example Washington [3] now require manufacturers participating in state recycling plan to communicate and work with processors used by the plan to promote and encourage design of electronic products that contain components that are more recyclable. Products designed for reuse and recycling are important attributes of environmental leadership as it demonstrates a higher commitment to extended producer responsibility [4]. Various eco-labels and federal procurement guidelines have design for environment attributes embedded in the standards. In US the Green Electronics Council (GEC) has created a rating system called EPEAT [5] (Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool) that evaluates products on 51 environmental criteria in eight categories, including materials use, design for end of life, and packaging. GEC notes that 90% of products environmental attributes come from design, so starting off right is a critical step. GEC is also working in collaboration with National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER) and Resource Recycling Inc. in a study funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency titled Closing the E-Design E-Scrap Loop to enhance Reuse/Recycling value [6]. The electronic industry has adopted popular eco-labels such as Blue Angel, China CEC, JEITA Green PC label, TCO05 and TCO 03 which have various criteria around product end-oflife impacting product design. International Standards development group such as International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC-62075, 62430, 114) [7] [8] [9] and Industry groups such as ECMA-341 [10] have also developed standards for environmentally conscious design of electronic products. This paper presents the Dell design for environment initiative and findings of the survey conducted to obtain feedback from electronic recyclers globally on product design for reuse, recyclability, and material preferences. II. SUSTAINABILITY MODEL IN PRODUCT DESIGN At Dell, environmental opportunities and challenges are considered at every stage of the product life cycle [11] from design and development, manufacturing and operations, to product use and recovery. Product design efforts are guided by corporate environmental policy and governance set to continuously improve the environmental performance. Dell follows the ISO 14001 standard for managing environmental

Abstract There is increasing market and regulatory pressure on responsible management of end-of-life electronics. In Europe, the EuP Directive (DIRECTIVE 2005/32/EC) requires manufacturers to perform assessment of the environmental impacts of their products throughout their lifecycle and the EU WEEE directive encourages manufacturers to design products which facilitate easy dismantling and recovery, in particular reuse and recycling. Certain states in US such as Washington are beginning to include product design-related information requirements of manufacturers in their recycling laws. Dell offers free recycling to consumers globally and has established robust asset management practices with our recycling partners. Beyond effective asset recovery offerings/services, customer and analyst feedback indicates that product design for reuse, repair/upgrade and recycling are important attributes of environmental leadership as it demonstrates a higher commitment to extended producer responsibility. There is also increasing interest in products with post-consumer recycled content materials. Dell works closely with its downstream partners and solicits their feedback in improving product design for reuse, repair/upgrade and recycling. This paper presents results of a recent downstream recycling partner survey and the attributes which are considered most relevant by recyclers in improving product design for environment. Index TermsElectronic Product Design, Design for Environment, recycling, reuse, closing the loop.

I. INTRODUCTION or decades making electronic products more environmentally-responsible has been high on the agenda of policy makers, industry and consumers alike. The electronics industry, as well as other industry sectors, is continuously working on various initiatives focused on reducing the environmental impacts of how products are designed, manufactured, used, and managed at end-of-life. Concerns about product-environment symbiosis run from chemical, electromagnetic and acoustical emissions to recyclability and end-of-life management. Various legislative measures seek to reduce the environmental impact of products The EuP Directive (DIRECTIVE 2005/32/EC) [1] requires manufacturers to perform an assessment of the environmental
Puneet Shrivastava works as a Regulatory Engineering Advisor in the Environmental Affairs group at Dell. He is responsible for environmental compliance of Dell products to global packaging and recycling regulations.(phone: 512-723-1479; e-mail: Puneet_shrivastavar@dell.com). Scott OConnell is Sr. Strategist on Environmental Affairs with Dell. He leads advanced environmental initiatives at Dell.(e-mail: Scott_OConnell@dell.com). Mike Watson is a Sr. Manager and leads Dells global take back and asset recovery programs. (e-mail:mike_watson@dell.com).

programs throughout the product life cycle. Dell Product 2] Design for Environmental specifications [12 are written in alignment with the life cycle model [Fig. 1.]

commitment to transition Dell lapto to energy-efficient and ops mercury free LED displays by 2010 The transition from CRT 0. to flat panel displays has already sig gnificantly reduced the use of lead. Dell also prohibits the use of PBBs and PBDEs u (including Deca-BDE) for all appli ications, and the use of all other Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) (including TBBPechanical plastic parts for A and HBCDD) and PVC in me desktops, notebook and server pr roducts as well as TCO certified displays and Blue Angel certified printers. In early c 2009, Dell also launched G-series monitors which are free of m PVC, BFR, CFR, arsenic and mer rcury. External chassis in these monitors is also made up of more than 25% post consumer recycled materials.

Fig. 1. Dells Product Design Life C Cycle. Fig. 2. Recyclers priority of avoida ance of sensitive material

Environmental specifications act as a g guide to product designers for compliance to global regulation and standards, ns and eco-label voluntary environmental initiatives d to include requirements. Products are designed environmentally-responsible materials, using efficient designs that require fewer materials and maximize reusability and e recyclability. This methodology encourages reduction of the most significant environmental aspects of the life cycle f without unnecessarily burdening the supply c chain. At product end of life Dell offers consumers free take back and ensure that equipment is recycled in an environmen ntally-responsible manner using our stringent global recycling g guidelines [13]. III. DELL RECYCLER SURVEY RESULTS In 2008, Dells Environmental Affairs te eam conducted a downstream recycler survey to assess and ob btain feedback on product design attributes which are perceiv important by ved recyclers. The survey was administered to a group of Dells global recycling partners through an online survey tool. The cler feedback on focus of the survey was to collect recyc attributes which maximizes recycling, reuse, repair/upgrade mentally sensitive and their priority in avoidance of environm materials in electronic products. A. Environmentally-responsible materials Dells vision is to avoid the use of substanc in its products ces that could seriously harm the environment or human health and to ensure that we act responsibly and w caution. Dell with material restrictions are based on conside eration for legal requirements, international treaties and c conventions, and specific market requirements. this area is our An example of Dells leadership in t

Recycler feedback reconfirms De ells commitment to avoid environmentally sensitive material As shown in Fig. 2, ls. Recyclers assigned higher priority to avoiding use of BFRs and Mercury in electronic products over PVC, Beryllium and Arsenic. o Dell recognizes the importance of material selection, with the goal of designing and manuf facturing products so the resources needed to manufactu ure those products are minimized, the use of recycled and renewable materials is d/or maximized and new material types (for example: omaterials) are thoroughly renewable/biobased materials, nano evaluated for health and environmen safety prior to use. ntal Designers also focus on demateria alization to make products smaller. Dell Studio Hybrid is about 80% smaller than standard desktops [14]. Use of post consumer recycled content mental benefit by reduction is driven by need to derive environm in extraction of virgin resources an associated green house nd gas impacts. Dell Optiplex 960 de esktop contains 10 percent post-consumer recycled content plastics, several Dell displays contain 25 percent post-consumer recycled content plastic. blish a closed loop process Dell is also actively working to estab for plastics. Recyclers feedback to the survey indicated that a d closed loop process can be explored even further for Steel and Aluminum apart from plastics. B. Design for End-of-life, reuse and recycling. a Products, parts and components are designed to be upgraded extending the technological life of the product. To facilitate f removal and easy upgrade parts are designed as subassemblies. Choice of fasteners is equally important. Care is ics taken in selection of metal or plasti fasteners. Snap fits are

preferred for fastening and joining plastic parts. that products use Implementation of DfE guidelines assures t minimal amount of the most benign and rec cyclable materials and that they are constructed for easy disass sembly, eliminate the use of glues and adhesives, less numbe of screws and er provide easy access to the screws. eedback suggests According the survey results, recycler fe that, to improve product reuse and recyclab bility the criteria which are more desired are avoidance of metal inserts in ess plastics, uniformity of plastic resin and le variability in screws for different components within the pr roduct.

Besides product information recyclers were asked what information would most assist them in reuse and recycling. m Survey feedback indicated that bill of material and labeling of parts is considered extremely impo ortant by the recyclers as shown in Fig. 4. C. Design for Recycling Design for recycling is essentia and is important to be al considered from very beginning. Adopting this premise helps to ensure an effective recycling chai which goes well beyond in, the scrap processor to the mill, sm melters and Aluminum and plastics recyclers. Historically produ that utilized four, five, ucts or more polymers effectively beca ame non-recyclable, or at least the plastics fraction of that product was difficult to recycle. Today with research and te echnology much is known about mechanical recycling and other forms for material recovery as an alternative to land filling [17]. In the survey recyclers were asked to rank polymer type based on their ease . in recyclability. As shown in Fig 5. HIPS, PC-ABS polymers were ranked more recyclable than PC and PVC polymers by P the recyclers that were surveyed. Among metals Aluminum A and Steel were regarded as highly re ecyclable.

Fig. 3. Recyclers rank for most important d design criteria.

s The Plug-In To eCycling Guidelines for Materials Management [15] are EPAs voluntary guid delines for sound reuse and recycling of e-waste. The guideline encourages recyclers to maximize reuse, refurbishment an recycling over nd disposal and incineration. Recycler feedbac indicated that ck most commonly reused and refurbished component in d computers are LCD display, Motherboard, O Optical drives and Keyboards in that order. Designers at D Dell continuously improve design of products to aid reuse and refurbishment of ar these components by making them modula and providing easy access and disassembly. Article 11 of European WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC on e Waste of Electronic and Electrical Equipm ment requires that producers provide reuse and treatment infor rmation for each type for new EEE put on the market within o year after the one equipment is put on the market. Del provides this ll information on every product through el lectronic product datasheets and environmental datasheets on its website [16]. easily accessible. Recyclers survey reconfirmed information is e

Fig. 5. Recycler preference by polym type for chassis plastic. mer

Fig. 4. Information to assist reuse and recycl ling of WEEE

i Apart from sorting plastics into different categories, recyclers also find it challenging while dealing with the g variety of paints and coatings used within the industry. Paint and coatings, if not removed, can cause property reductions from stress concentrations. Degradation of coatings can also f lead to chemical degradation of certain plastics during reprocessing. The paints and co oatings must usually be removed or rendered compatible with the plastic substrate to w achieve highest possible mechanical properties of the recycled l materials. There have been reports of good property retention with certain coating/substrate co ombinations without any special attention to the coating [18]. Integral (molded-in) [ finishes are preferred over exte erior coating. This was reconfirmed with the recyclers in the survey. e Thermoplastic elastomers (TP PE) and Thermoplastics polyurethanes (TPU) are emerging as an alternative to PVC in a cable insulation and jacketing. TP and TPUs advantage PE include good elasticity, transparen and resistance to oil, ncy grease and abrasion however there are some challenges with cations. Overwhelmingly in using these resins in all cable applic the survey most of the recyclers response indicated that TPE

and TPU are more recyclable than PVC at end of life. Finally recyclers were asked in survey if phosphorus and metal based flame retardants are more recyclable than BFRs when used in printed circuit boards. A number of eco-labels restrict or ban BFRs in chassis plastics, e.g. the Blue Angel in Germany and TCO in Sweden. Currently halogen-free solutions exist for printed circuit board laminates as well as for chassis plastics, however not all halogen-free printed circuit board laminates have been fully characterized for electrical and mechanical properties.. Mechanical properties of phosphorous based flame retardants in chassis plastics are at the same level as halogenated compounds. Other advantages of phosphorus based flame retardants are that they have good flow properties and that flame retarded plastics can be colored with any pigments. Halogen-free printed circuit board laminates are however more costly but with increasing use the material cost of halogen-free laminates is expected to decrease. At regional level recyclers from Europe also informed that non-BFR plastics dont have to be incinerated. Our survey confirmed that recyclers feedback suggest that phosphorus based and metal based flame retardants are more recyclable than Brominated flame retardants. IV. CONCLUSION Electronic products have an effect on the environment, which may occur at any or all stages of its life cycle raw material acquisition, manufacture, distribution, use and disposal. Design for the environment is a systematic way of considering the entire life or life cycle of a product up front, and during design. Designers have to evenly balance the environmental aspects of a product against other factors such as its intended use, performance, safety and health, cost, marketability, quality and regulatory requirements. At Dell, environmental aspects are integrated early into product during the design stage. A collaborative team including product designers work with downstream partners in assessing impact of product design, materials use, recycling technology to develop environmentally sound products. This survey is an important mechanism to obtain direct feedback from recyclers. Dell designers also engage with recycling trade organizations, perform site visits and audits and also use international standards in making environmentally conscious design decisions to meet its commitment of developing more environmentally-responsible products. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to acknowledge Dells global Asset Recovery and Recycling partners for providing valuable feedback on product designs. The authors would also like to thank Dells Advanced Engineering, Industrial Design, Development Engineering, Marketing and Global Operations teams in working collaboratively to actively pursue more environmentally-responsible products.

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