As technological advancements emerge in new forms, manufacturers produce more electronic devices--which leads, in turn, to more electronic devices being discarded. The effect: an accumulation of toxic materials in landfills and other disposal sites.
Design engineers play a crucial role in addressing the issue of e-waste by formulating sustainable, environmentally friendly products.
So how can design engineers work to reduce e-waste, promote universal sustainability, and keep the planet healthy.
What Is E-Waste?
Before we move into design engineers’ ability to tackle electronic waste, defining what e-waste is and why it’s so dangerous is useful.
In short, e-waste consists of electronic devices that have outlived their useful lifespans (at least from a given consumer’s perspective).
Once a consumer stops using such devices and discards them, they often end up in landfills or electronic waste recycling centres. These sites accumulate contaminants and harm nearby communities. But as we’ll discuss, they have even more dangerous consequences.
The Dangers of E-Waste
In the first place, electronic waste has a profound and negative effect on both the non-human environment and human health.
Electronic devices usually contain toxic elements like lead, mercury, and cadmium. Although these elements are safely contained inside devices during their lifespan, they become potentially lethal during e-recycling.
The most common method for “recycling” electronic devices is to burn them in the open air or immerse them in acid baths, destroying their outer shells and allowing workers to recover their reusable components.
Doing so, however, poses incredible dangers. For workers, the smoke from an open-air burn and the runoff from an acid bath both release the aforementioned toxic chemicals, exposing recyclers to lead, beryllium, arsenic, mercury, and more. Exposure is sickening at best and lethal at worst.
These compounds' air and water pollution can be devastating, harming the animals and plants around an industrial manufacturer.
Designers, however, have the power to design products that reduce or eliminate the use of these chemicals and minimize the impact of e-waste, saving human lives in the process.
The Benefits of Sustainability
Of course, this isn’t just about mere survival. On the contrary, businesses can thrive by designing environmentally friendly products.
As consumers become increasingly aware of the impact of their purchases on the environment, they are more likely to choose sustainable and eco-friendly products. Therefore, companies can attract more customers and gain a competitive edge in the market by prioritizing sustainability.
Moreover, sustainability is simply in the long-term interest of electronics designers. All electronics require rare earth minerals, of which there is only a finite amount on the planet. By ensuring that their products are easily recycled, designers can ensure they will have the material to make new devices.
Design engineers have many methods for eliminating e-waste, including the following practices.
Design for Recyclability
One of the main ways that design engineers reduce e-waste is by designing recyclable products.
Electronic technology often becomes waste because devices are made for one lifetime’s worth of use–once they’re done, they are consigned to a trash heap.
The problem becomes even more challenging when devices can only be disassembled through highly technical means. The upshot is that the products are either subjected to dangerous acid baths or disposed of as one whole, including non-recyclable parts. Either way, the result is dangerous and unnecessary e-waste.
However, by ensuring that the various components of a given device are easily deconstructed, uniformly recyclable, and simple, designers can help reduce the amount of electronic waste that ends up in landfills.
Of course, the easiest way to reduce waste is to construct a device out of easily recyclable components, such as aluminium, steel, and glass.
On the flip side, by making a device with fewer parts, designers ensure that it is easy to disassemble–allowing safer methods for harvesting the recyclable parts from a device that has reached the end of its lifespan.
Design for Longevity
Another way that design engineers reduce e-waste is by designing products that have a longer lifespan.
By ensuring that products are durable and reliable, designers can reduce the frequency with which they need to be replaced. As a result, they both mitigate the absolute volume of electronic waste and temporarily ease the burden on recycling programmes.
Designers can plan for product longevity in various ways. At the simplest level (though often the most expensive, to be certain) designers can create devices made of durable, long-lasting materials, such as sturdy metals rather than plastics.
Another approach is to design products with modular components, which allows for parts to be easily repaired and replaced. Doing so lengthens the device’s lifespan, preventing it from being disposed of simply because of wear and tear. The upshot: long-lasting devices maximize their value before becoming e-waste.
Design for Sustainability
Another simple way that designers use to reduce e-waste is by using eco-friendly materials.
By choosing materials that are renewable, biodegradable, and non-toxic, designers reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout the devices’ lifecycles.
Eco-friendly materials might include simple, recyclable materials we mentioned above, like aluminium or steel. But they can also get far more esoteric.
Some designers include materials made from natural fibres, such as bamboo or hemp, and materials made from recycled materials, such as recycled plastic or paper. Doing so reduces the footprint of the device’s manufacturer.
Designers can also consider the use of non-toxic materials, such as water-based adhesives, to avoid environmentally noxious substances like industrial glue.
Design With Manufacturers and Policymakers
At a certain point, designers can only reduce so much e-waste through their own siloed efforts. To mitigate the potential e-waste in their products, they must reach out to external bodies, including manufacturers and policymakers, to optimize their products’ design.
By collaborating with the manufacturers who produce their devices, electronic device designers can ensure that factories execute their sustainable designs.
Similarly, by working with policymakers, designers can use the firsthand experience to develop standards that promote responsible e-waste regulations.
Doing so is especially helpful in encouraging the development of a circular economy–a form of economic production that focuses on keeping resources in use for as long as possible. Such an economy reduces waste and pollution and allows ecosystems to regenerate in-between moments of extraction, ensuring the planet’s health and allowing the device’s industry to sustain itself.
Although e-waste is a growing problem in our increasingly networked world, there’s still hope.
Design engineers have many tools at their disposal to deal with the e-waste crisis and make sure that people can keep using electronic technology without destroying the planet's resources.
Author details: Nicolle Portilla is Marketing Manager at RTS
