Abstract
The challenge for designers in today’s waste-disposal-aware society is to produce environmentally compliant systems. This chapter describes critical environmental considerations during the design and development stages that have tremendous impact during product disposal and recycling. We begin with a discussion of the importance of a circular economy, in which products are designed to circulate in the production system without entering the environment (Sect. 7.1). Section 7.2 describes the circular economy’s effect on the manufacture, usage, and disposal of electronic systems. Section 7.3 explores the concept of product recycling . The materials in every electronic system must be disposed of at the end of their useful life. The commercial and ecological aspects of the necessary material recycling (Sect. 7.4) are determined by how well the system has been designed for disassembly (Sect. 7.5) and by the suitability of its constituent materials for recycling (Sect. 7.6). Section 7.7 concludes with a review of recommendations for design for environmental compliance.
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Notes
- 1.
Complex building structures are good examples to illustrate the concept of entropy. Here, for example, building blocks that have been used to construct a wall are “highly organized” (i.e. they are arranged in a complex structure) and are thus in a low-entropy state. This state is achieved only by the input of energy. If this structure is left unattended, it will decay after a number of years, and the disorganized, high-entropy state will return (i.e., an unorganized heap of blocks). Generally speaking then, entropy is maintained, or it increases, in all natural processes.
- 2.
The second law of thermodynamics states that the universe evolves such that its total entropy always stays the same or increases.
- 3.
This theoretical reduction to one-eighth (12.5%) is based on the threefold doubling of the savings (2 × 2 × 2 = 8).
- 4.
After recycling office paper up to seven times, for example, the required long fibers are not sustainable anymore and only a “lesser use” with short fibers is possible, such as cardboard or toilet paper.
References
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G. Röhrs „Recyclinggerechte Fertigung und Gestaltung“, chapter 3 in: W. Krause, Fertigung in der Feinwerk- und Mikrotechnik, Carl Hanser Verlag, 1996
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Lienig, J., Bruemmer, H. (2017). Recycling Requirements and Design for Environmental Compliance. In: Fundamentals of Electronic Systems Design. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55840-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55840-0_7
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