Improving e-waste recovery with energy efficiency information of products

Energy efficiency is one of the critical parameters to determine e-waste recovery feasibility in order to improve resource efficiency and sustainable consumption and production. Thus, a proper assessment of product efficiency is necessary to achieve optimal end-of-life (EoL) product recovery strategy. This paper proposes a generic method to assess the product efficiency based on energy efficiency analysis and reliability analysis. The assessment leads to identifying residual value of EoL product before any recovery decision is made. A near perfect efficient product or component could be reused, on the other hand, recovery option for inefficient part would be decided based on its efficiency, residual value and reliability. With the accurate EoL product status assessment, e-waste recovery could be enhanced by retaining the materials and energy embedded in EoL product. The proposed e-waste recovery methodology is prime important to industry. It aids product designer, manufacturer and policy maker work toward a better environmental decision making for resource efficiency and a sustainable economic growth.