Design and End-of-Life Prof. Dr. Ir. Ab Stevels, M.A.h.c. Chair of Applied EcoDesign Design for Sustainability Lab Industrial Design Engineering Delft University of Technology Stevels@xs4all.nl September 10, 2019

Outline Introduction Lessons learned from the last 10 years Historic perspective Life cycle perspective and design for end-of-life Lessons learned from the last 10 years Principles and examples Design rules for end-of-life Conclusions September 10, 2019

Introduction September 10, 2019

Historic Perspective 10 years ago 3-5 years ago Recent Design perspective ‘Hazardous substances’ out phasing Design for X approaches (disassembly) Life cycle perspective Priority setting Toxicity control Technological perspective End of ‘end-of-pipe’ era Metals only Mainly industrial waste Disassembly focused Trials, pilots Selective (automated disassembly) Shredding and separation Economies of scale Tool perspective Company checklists Dispersed academic initiatives Tool prototypes bases on early ideas Guesstimates Mainly qualitative Tools with real life data Benchmarking Also quantitative Environmental Value Chain September 10, 2019

Starting Points Life Cycle Design has priority; Design for end-of-life (DFEOL) is only part of it and should be done in synergy Product functionality, embodiment and value chain determine the room to maneuver The big issue in end-of-life is material streams resulting from treatment (not individual products) Control of potential toxicity needs more attention in end-of-life September 10, 2019

The life cycle perspective (typical electronic product) How to recover most of the environmental value? How to optimize raw material extraction/ production vs. end-of-life? September 10, 2019

Lessons learned September 10, 2019

Lessons Learned, I Know your facts before starting Design for End-of-Life (DFEOL) Designing for higher levels of reuse is only useful If it is environmentally useful If the value chain can be aligned Adapt DFEOL to technology developments Let environmental impacts play a bigger role in DFEOL September 10, 2019

Lessons Learned, II Priority setting Treatment Life-cycle perspective Output vs. input Discarding behavior Life-cycle perspective Include all phases Describe embedded effect/ rebounds Efficiency Identification of best investment options September 10, 2019

Lessons Learned, III End-of-Life Design Advisor (ELDA) Prediction of end-of-life strategies Analysis of best vs. current practice Environmental Value Chain Mapping of flows Analysis of stakeholders Identification of ‘intangibles’ September 10, 2019

Lessons Learned, IV Technology Economies of scale Should be output focused Disassembly only for appropriate products Shredding and separation and separation economically feasible Economies of scale Make or break end-of-life scenarios Ensemble issue (concentration of substances) September 10, 2019

Lessons Learned, V Resources Toxicity Recyclability Dominating economy (precious metals, copper) and ecology (primary extraction) Here biggest risks are avoided Toxicity Treatment aspects (controlling toxicity versus resource conservation/ value) Dominant in final waste disposal (landfill/ incineration) Recyclability Material fraction should be weighted according to impact → QWERTY approach September 10, 2019

Principles and Examples September 10, 2019

EcoDesign and the Lifecycle perspective -600 -400 -200 200 400 600 Production Value (of materials consumed) Worst-case End-of-Life Best-case End-of-Life Environmental gain (mPt) Environmental burden (mPt) 1 2 3 From a life-cycle perspective there are THREE main Ecodesign routes September 10, 2019

EcoDesign and the Lifecycle perspective -1000 -500 500 1000 1500 2000 Production End-of-life Plastics Ferro Copper Aluminium Environmental gain (mPt) Environmental burden (mPt) Plastic housing Steel housing Aluminium housing Don’t replace plastic housings with metal housings! September 10, 2019

Redesign Options Reduce or replace the amount of critical and undesired materials Reallocate materials Improve unlocking properties of parts and components. (Both for shredding and separation as for disassembly) Two Examples: 1. DVD-player 2. CRT Monitor September 10, 2019

Example Design for Recycling Redesign results: DVD player -200 200 400 600 Original New Plastics Aluminium Lead Tin Palladium Gold Copper Ferro Environmental gain (mPt) Environmental burden (mPt) Production Worst Case Disposal Recycling September 10, 2019

Example Design for Recycling Economic results: DVD player Original New redesign Production (Raw Materials only!) € 1,80 € 1,61 Worst-case Disposal € 2,80 € 2,36 Best Practice Recycling € 0,46 € 0,33 Improvement in all three cases! September 10, 2019

Example Design for Recycling Results for an drastic redesign: 17” Monitor Environment Economy Reduced disassembly time: Original design: € 5,95 Redesign: € 4,86 September 10, 2019

Other restrictions for EcoDesign Functionality and looks Cost aspects Reliability and safety, legal requirements Development time Supply chain aspects Always take into account the Lifecycle perspective! September 10, 2019

Design for Recycling guidelines September 10, 2019

Design for Recycling, Never a Stand-alone Activity Only meaningful because Design for Disassembly Assembly costs are lowered as well Design for Non-disassembly Chemical content control is improved Mono materials Bill of materials is lowered Elimination of halogenated flame retardants September 10, 2019

Design Rules for Improving End-of-Life Performance, I There are a lot of them Which rules have the highest priority? Will be dependent on the chosen end-of-life strategy You are designing for the customer of today, however end-of-life will be in the (far) future September 10, 2019

Design Rules for Improving End-of-Life Performance, II Priority setting General design rules Design rules for prevention, reuse Design rules for materials Design rules for fixtures Bringing end-of-life cost down by design September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Priority Setting) Set priorities according to design strategy developed Put things into perspective of other main environmental issues Energy / Utilities consumption Materials Type and amount of environmentally relevant substances September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (General) Extend technical life Decrease weight (less waste) Decrease weight of those subassemblies which are giving rise to high end-of-life cost Decrease volume (transport) Modular construction (disassembly) Decrease amount of parts September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Prevention, Reuse) Make product repair-friendly (accessibility) Make trendy parts exchangeable (front cover) Make product in such a way that new features can be introduced later on Fix subassemblies and components which have reuse potential in such a way that they can be taken out without damage September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Materials) Avoid composites materials (laminates, glass fiber, reinforced materials, metal composites) Limit application of materials with surface coatings Make materials with recycle potential easily accessible Make parts with unavoidable hazardous substances easily accessible Use iron screws (magnetic) September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Compatibility) Apply the compatibility rules for: Metals Plastics Glass Use mono-materials plastics (only one type per product) Mark all plastic parts Limit of stickers, wire fixtures, etc. Make that glass can be easily separated from other materials September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Fixture) Limit number of joint/fixtures Use click joints >screws > glue joints > soldering Make it possible that fixtures can be separated with simple tools Limit the number of tools needed (e.g. one type of screws) Limit the number of tool changes needed Construct the product in such a way that there is no need to turn it September 10, 2019

Design Rules for End-of-Life (Non-Disassembly) Product material composition: avoid penalty elements Minimize amounts of flame retardants Avoid halogens in plastics Special attention for bismuth in (lead-free) solder Avoid cadmium and mercury containing batteries Avoid plating with nickel, tin, zinc (and in general) September 10, 2019

Conclusions Put design for End-of-Life in Lifecycle perspective Apply design rules which are relevant for the prioritized strategy Take value chain and technology developments into account QWERTY/EE methodology very useful in determining redesign strategies: Calculation of the influence of the various processes involved Prioritizing materials September 10, 2019