Rethinking the e-waste problem using printed electronics
The global tech boom has led to a steep rise in e-waste that has become a major threat to our health and planet. Our industry partners are taking a significant first step in reducing their environmental impact by replacing conventional electronics with printed electronics. Moreover, TNO at Holst Centre keeps on innovating to find clever solutions to make electronics truly sustainable.
Across the world we produce no less than 54 million tonnes of e-waste – every year. Less than 20 per cent is recycled; the rest is dumped, traded, or recycled under inferior conditions. That’s why e-waste contributes greatly to all major environmental challenges; from global warming, to air and water pollution, and from plastic waste, to the scarcity of precious materials, and the global energy crisis. Fortunately, governments acknowledge the gravity of this problem and introduce stricter legalisation to force companies to take responsibility. With its European Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, the European Commission wants to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
design
Weight & space reduction: with same functionalities, printed electronics is lighter and takes up less space, enabling products with reduced weight and lower energy consumption.
Less harmful material usage: printed electronics contains less scarce materials and impactful PCB’s than conventional electronics, which not only reduces costs, but also contributes to less material scarcity and less pollution.
Reduced dependency of PCB’s: Integrating a large part of the electronics of the PCBs in the printed electronics product, helps reducing the environmental footprint of the product. The product essentially becomes the PCB. When based on low-impact materials and making use of recycling processes and eco-designs, printed electronics significantly reduces the overall environmental footprint.
manufacturing
Closed-loop manufacturing: PET, PC, TPU, (PEN) are thermoplastics and thus recyclable on polymer and eventually on monomer level
Power efficiency: photonic sintering, printing, thermoplastic polymers and low T interconnects contribute to energy-efficient manufacturing
Renewable polymers: building blocks are increasingly bio-based, which further reduces the environmental impact
Additive production: printing results in efficient circuitry design without waste and even allows for printed electronic components
Free of hazardous metals/chemicals: unlike conventional electronic boards manufacturing, printed electronics predominantly uses silver and copper, which makes recycling easier as well
Recycling
No incineration (or even landfill): materials are potentially recycled or re-used (circularly)
Compostable electronics: potential use of organic inks (carbon), substrates (paper, poly-sugars, sericin) result in fully compostable electronics
next level innovations
Our efforts are directed to all global environmental challenges; from plastic waste, to terrestrial pollution, material scarcity, and global warming. To increase printed electronics’ positive environmental impact even further, as an industry we need to set up recycling procedures, increase material recovery, and improve dismantling techniques. Furthermore, we should focus on using reversible interconnects, increase the use of bio-based building blocks and improve reliability.
sustainable value creation
As TNO at Holst Centre we help clients with sustainable value creation by rethinking their design, manufacturing and recycling processes. We invite new partners to participate in our lifecycle assessments (LCA), end-of-life studies (EOL), and comparative cost calculations, to jointly address the e-waste problem and to make electronics truly sustainable.
