3 posts tagged “recycling”

Link: Japan for Sustainability Newsletter #066 (2008/03/25 link to article posted)

The subscriber version of the JFS newsletter discusses a report by Komei Harada (National Institute for Materials Science) calculated the amount of recyclable materials in Japan.  Although Japan has limited natural resources, the results show that stocks of materials in Japanese society (the 'urban mine') are comparable to the natural mineral deposits of resource-rich countries.  As a percentage of world natural resource stocks, Japan had 61% of the iridium, 16% of the gold, and 11% of the tin.  Total world demand for metals could be satisfied by Japan's 'urban mines' for two to three years (six to eight years for lithium and platinum).

The article points out that recycling and recovery systems for many of these metals are underdeveloped, and the products from which these metals could be recovered are often shipped out of Japan as low-value scrap.  However, the yield of metals from manufactured products can be many times greater than from traditional mining.  About 280 grams of gold can be recovered from a ton of mobile phones, whereas a similar quantity of gold ore yields about five grams. 

The article closes with the need for "the creation of systems for resource recovery and recycling that minimize wasteful use of natural resources and make full use of the rich resources that have accumulated in urban areas."  Products need to be designed so that the component materials can be cleanly recovered with a low investment of energy, a resource that cannot be recycled.  Although energy is conserved, its ability to do useful work is not.  As energy is converted to work, the quality and ability of that energy do to more work declines.

Note: this is a public post

According to Treehugger, Nokia is working on a prototype cellphone that can disassemble itself in 2 seconds, compared to 2 minutes using traditional methods.  A heat source activates 'shape metal alloy actuators' which basically cause the phone to disintegrate into component parts.  WorldChanging has a more detailed description of the process. 

In Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough emphasizes the importance of designing products and services for both the biological and technical resource cycles.  By  ensuring that the two cycles are kept separate, it is possible to keep pollutants out of the environment.  More importantly, it allows creation of closed-loop technical cycles that eliminate the concept of waste through re-manufacturing.  The current recycling methods typically downgrade the quality of the material such that they often are only suitable for lower-grade products.  Eventually, the value of the recycled material is such that it is discarded. 

The work of Nokia and other companies who are developing Active Disassembly opens opportunities to design products and systems that allow extraction, testing and re-use of working components in new phones.  Through good design, components that cannot be re-used or repaired can be further broken down such that they become the raw materials for new components, closing the loop.

Aside from dramatically reducing the both waste and resource consumption, the concept lends itself to 'product as service', where you no longer buy a cellphone but rather the services provided by that cellphone.  If the product no longer works or new features are required, the physical phone could be exchanged for another one. 

A post on Treehugger described responsible cellphone recycling through TerraPass/RIPMobile. Unfortunately, this program is primarily meant for people living in the USA.  However, in the process I discovered that Staples Canada is accepting mobile electronics, including cellphones, PDAs, pagers and chargers.  Through CollectiveGood, the equipment is either refurbished (proceeds donated to Special Olympics Canada) or recycled in an environmentally appropriate manner.

Staples also recycles ink-jet and toner cartridges through their Recycle for Education program, as well as rechargeable batteries.