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Recycling
Special Issues
Waste to Resources: Legacy Value from E-Waste
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Waste to Resources: Legacy Value from E-Waste

A special issue of Recycling (ISSN 2313-4321).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2016) | Viewed by 25101

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. William Bullock

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, Sustainable Electronics Initiative (SEI), Design for Energy and Environment Laboratory (DEE Lab), School of Art and Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 408 E. Peabody Drive, MC 590, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Interests: sustainability; product development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

E-waste is one of the most pressing environmental problems the world faces today. While the benefits of the information technology revolution are undeniable, these advancements have come with a price: a legacy of waste. Incineration and burial in landfills, the end for most recycled electronics, wastes valuable resources along with the embedded energy originally used to manufacture it. Current electronic recycling is actually down-cycling, with decreasing value leading eventually to the waste stream. The pollution and risks to human health associated with virgin material extraction, production, and use, plus improper end-of-life disposal are well-advertised, if not thoroughly researched. The intractable problem is carbon dioxide, off-gassed by the electronics industry, which correlates with the rising temperature of the planet and climate and weather extremes.

While progress has been made in recycling and reusing e-waste, the problem continues to worsen because of the increased demand for new products. As the waste problem worsens, we must focus more on creating new knowledge on waste prevention. There is a growing need to examine the core of the problem: poor design. Most human and environmental problems associated with e-waste are attributed to poor decisions made during the design process. Existing electronics are by in large not designed, assembled, and manufactured with the idea of extended use or reuse. Better understanding of materials and processes, methods, and approaches are needed to inform the emerging next industrial revolution, one that will be challenged to create products for reuse and extended and/or continuous use in a closed loop.

This Special Issue will document current design thinking that can help change the legacy of
e-waste to one of e-opportunity and e-value through better design. Experts from academia and industry, designers, architects, engineers, scientists, and others are invited to share their theoretical and applied knowledge of how to turn waste into resources. Collaboration across disciplines is encouraged.

Prof. Dr. William Bullock
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Recycling is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • E-waste
  • recycling
  • reuse
  • continuous use
  • design
  • waste into resources

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

2657 KiB  
Article
What Institutional Dynamics Guide Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Refurbishment and Reuse in Urban China?
by Benjamin Steuer
Recycling 2016, 1(2), 286-310; https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling1020286 - 8 Sep 2016
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 11111
Abstract
For over two decades China has faced a veritable e-waste challenge due to the continuous increase in quantities of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) coming from foreign and domestic sources. Over more than a decade, the government’s response has been focussed on [...] Read more.
For over two decades China has faced a veritable e-waste challenge due to the continuous increase in quantities of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) coming from foreign and domestic sources. Over more than a decade, the government’s response has been focussed on developing large-scale recycling facilities so as to recover the valuable materials within WEEE. Simultaneously, China is home to a vast, informal segment, which engages in the collection, refurbishment, and processing (dismantling, extraction of components and materials) of obsolete electronics, thus directly competing with the formal system for devices and for the profits that they generate. The official discourse and most of the existing research concentrates primarily on WEEE recycling. However, project-based field research and interviews by the author in Beijing and Guangdong province have indicated that the repair, refurbishment, and reuse of discarded electronics are widespread and profitable practices of the informal domain. This paper aims to analyse the institutional, i.e., rule-based, mechanisms behind these activities and, via an institutional economics approach, to highlight how formal and informal rule-based practices structure WEEE refurbishment and reuse in China. The results show that informal activities are dominant due to the well-developed collection and transfer networks, the division of labour amongst informal actors, and the high responsiveness to market prices and consumer demand. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Waste to Resources: Legacy Value from E-Waste)
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1704 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Compatibilizer Addition and Gamma Irradiation on Mechanical and Rheological Properties of a Recycled WEEE Plastics Blend
by Sandra Tostar, Erik Stenvall, Mark R. St J. Foreman and Antal Boldizar
Recycling 2016, 1(1), 101-110; https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling1010101 - 25 Jan 2016
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 6287
Abstract
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is growing rapidly, and the plastics within WEEE have an important role in fulfilling the recovery and recycling targets defined in the European WEEE Directive. This study considers recycling of WEEE plastics by making a blend of [...] Read more.
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is growing rapidly, and the plastics within WEEE have an important role in fulfilling the recovery and recycling targets defined in the European WEEE Directive. This study considers recycling of WEEE plastics by making a blend of the different plastics instead of separating them. The mechanical and thermal properties can be enhanced by adding a compatibilizer. It was found that one compatibilizer, a styrene-b(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene (SEBS) copolymer named Kraton® G1652 E, had a large impact on the ductility of the recycled WEEE plastics blend. By adding 2.5 weight % (wt%) of this copolymer, the elongation at break increased by more than five times compared with the non-compatibilized samples, with only a small decrease in stiffness and strength. The storage modulus (G’) decreased slightly with increasing compatibilizer amounts while the impact strength increased with increasing amounts of compatibilizer, from 2.1 kJ/m2 (reference material) to 3.6 kJ/m2 (5 weight % (wt%) compatibilizer). It was found that Kraton® FG1901 E (styrene-b(ethylene-co-butylene)-b-styrene (SEBS) grafted with maleic anhydride (MAH)), Royaltuf® 372P20 (styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) modified with ethylene-propylene-diene elastomers (EPDM)) and Fusabond® P353 (polypropylene (PP) with a high degree of grafted MAH) were ineffective as compatibilizers to the blend. Gamma irradiation (50 kGy) did not improve the mechanical properties however: the impact strength of the gamma-irradiated samples was lower than that of the non-irradiated samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Waste to Resources: Legacy Value from E-Waste)
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2688 KiB  
Article
Mechanical and Thermal Characterization of Melt-Filtered, Blended and Reprocessed Post-Consumer WEEE Thermoplastics
by Erik Stenvall and Antal Boldizar
Recycling 2016, 1(1), 89-100; https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling1010089 - 5 Jan 2016
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 6991
Abstract
A melt-blended and melt-filtered real post-consumer and recyclable waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics blend (WEEEBR) was studied, where the WEEEBR contained mainly acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (~40 wt %), high impact polystyrene (~40 wt %) and polypropylene (~10 wt %). The main aim was [...] Read more.
A melt-blended and melt-filtered real post-consumer and recyclable waste electrical and electronic equipment plastics blend (WEEEBR) was studied, where the WEEEBR contained mainly acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (~40 wt %), high impact polystyrene (~40 wt %) and polypropylene (~10 wt %). The main aim was to better understand the influence of different reprocessing conditions on the mechanical and thermal properties of WEEEBR and to compare these properties with the corresponding properties of model material blends of samples from single screw extrusion, twin screw extrusion and injection molding. For all the reprocessing alternatives studied, WEEEBR was found to be processable and an acceptable surface character could be obtained within narrow processing condition windows. It was found in particular that the reprocessing conditions influenced the elongation at break of WEEEBR, and to a lesser extent also the width of the polypropylene melting temperature region. The highest yield stress and elongation at break of WEEEBR was obtained after twin-screw extrusion at low barrel temperatures (180–200 °C) and a low screw rotation rate (60 rpm). Injection molding produced brittle materials with low impact strength, possibly due to molecular orientation effects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Waste to Resources: Legacy Value from E-Waste)
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