The economics of equipment recycling

This paper has covered a number of issues directly associated to the electrical and electronic industry. It has specifically attempted to create further understanding of the matters surrounding the disposition of end of life equipment (EOL). Greater emphasis is being placed on the products it creates and their total environmental impact. These pressures are being experienced now and will no doubt increase in the future. To alleviate these pressures and reduce liability the members working within the industry must make more use of the facilities at their disposal. For instance, design considerations, this subject is by no means simplistic. The paper has discussed separation requirements, this needs to be studied in detail using the recycling system for reference. Material selection is another area, by intelligent choice of material, performance, finish and production costs could be improved. This may be detrimental to costs at the manufacturing stage, however, the action could be more than compensated when recovered at end of life. Rather than look upon materials as a cost requirement for manufacturing they could be seen as a financial investment in the future. Finally, with the absence of any “take back” programmes, there is often a shortage of products available for processing making the work of developing the total recycling solution more difficult. Recovering fallout from manufacturing operations is a method by which material and product volumes can be achieved