1. 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
September 10, 2019

2. 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

3. Introduction
September 10, 2019

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Lessons learned
September 10, 2019

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Principles and Examples
September 10, 2019

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Design for Recycling guidelines
September 10, 2019

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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