CLOSED LOOP WEEE RECYCLING? CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR A GLOBAL RECYCLING SOCIETY

摘要

End-of-life Electronic and Electrical Equipment, officially called WEEE, is unjustly regarded as mainly a waste management problem. What is structurally overlooked is the enormous resource impact of these devices. EEE represents a tremendous metal resource, which should be utilized through effective recycling, which has a much lower environmental footprint than primary production. The actual amount of end-of-life EEE recycled today is embarrassingly low since insufficient EEE is collected and part of the collected EEE is exported to developing countries, where it is largely not entering official recycling systems. To achieve a global recycling society issues like technology, economics, life cycle structure, stakeholder awareness and legislation have to be addressed in a global, co-operative manner so that sustainable closed product cycles can be obtained. Requirements for a "global recycling society" are defined to address today's reality of global flows of used consumer products, taking into account the likely needs of the future.