Whether it’s sending design prototypes to recyclers for end-of-life feedback, lining up e-scrap companies to handle the haul of used products expected when a new one comes out or designing electronics with easily removable parts, electronics manufacturers say steps are being taken to incorporate reuse into the product design process.
Presenters at the E-Scrap Conference Oct. 26 in New Orleans discussed the possibilities and problems surrounding designing reuse into products. The speakers agreed that’s a much greater consideration now than in years past, but the need to balance sustainability with consumer needs prevents the supply chain from being truly circular.
Jennifer Foxworthy, global head of sustainability sales for Logitech, described the process surrounding production of the company’s Rally Bar 2 video bar. She said Logitech designers went to various recycling sites so those designers could examine how e-recycling happens. The designers then incorporated what they learned into the bar, which was sent to recyclers before mass production started so the company could learn how difficult the bar was to take apart and recycle.
“We were already thinking about the end of life of a product before we even launched it,” she said. “We took a very different approach to our design for sustainability, which we take very seriously across our entire portfolio.”
Designed for sustainability
So does Panasonic, according to Andrea Murphy, the company’s director of environmental affairs and sustainability. She said sustainability was factored into the development of Panasonic’s MultiShape trimmer, an all-purpose device with interchangeable heads that’s intended to replace four or five products in a person’s home.
While the product’s design is inherently circular in the elimination of batteries and bases for so many single-function products, she said her team still wanted to do something about the products that would be moved out to make room for the MultiShape.
“Are we now just adding these personal care grooming tools to the landfill?” she asked. “There are no recycling laws for these products in the 25 states and DC that have (electronic recycling) laws in them. And I said, ‘But we can take them back.’ ”
So Panasonic launched a personal care recycling program that offers discounts on future purchases. Panasonic partnered with ERI, MRM Recycling and Redwood Materials to arrange for customers to get a prepaid mailing label to return items to Panasonic, a program she said has been successful so far.
More rugged, more repairable
Where Panasonic looked to give those products a second life, Google has been working to give its consumer electronics a longer first life, according to Scott Shackelford, the company’s lead for environmental technical policy.
In a manner of speaking, Google smartphones, watches and other devices have to be made to be dropped, he said. Displays and batteries are among the high-failure components the company has to consider when designing for reuse.
“It’s a little bit more complex than some of the other products out on the market, but it’s a fun challenge,” he said. “I think the Google engineers like it.”
He touted those engineers for meeting the challenge and incorporating circularity into more Google products. The Pixel Watch 4 and 5, for example, are the only premium smartwatches with a user-replaceable battery. He hopes that success influences Google’s peers in the marketplace, but he acknowledges safety concerns may trump reuse potential, at least until and unless the technology to have both is viable.
“There’s a massive conflict between safety standards and durability with repair,” he said. “Design teams get two messages: Make it durable but removable by a layman. Most batteries are designed not to come out of a product for a reason.”
Murphy said she saw that sentiment in action when her team went to ERI to examine wet/dry shavers, which require embedded batteries for shower safety. The Panasonic team watched as ERI’s embedded battery expert worked to remove the battery.
And worked. And worked.
“I’m thinking, what, it should take two minutes? This is what this person is skilled in doing,” she said. “We stood there and we twiddled our thumbs, and it took over eight minutes for them to get the battery out safely. And that, for us, was really the light bulb, and we need to be connected to the end of life for recyclers.”
Designed based on feedback
Intel has experimented with system design to make its PCs more repairable, according to Roberta Zouain, the company’s sustainability product strategy and marketing manager for PC segments. She said feedback Intel has received from OEMs about chips, USB ports and other components has informed future progress on that front.
Intel engineers found that taking steps like using a daughterboard to connect the input/output to the motherboard can enhance repairability. But the degree to which a product can be designed for reuse depends on its intended first life.
“There are top-of-the-line, premium laptops that can accommodate certain design changes a lot more easily than, let’s say, a Chromebook that’s meant for kids. It’s much cheaper design, a much lower price point for that segment,” she said. “That means that the solutions that we have, we have to balance. We talked a lot about tradeoffs when you talk about circularity. There were design choices that we had to make there for one segment that would not necessarily work for the others.”
Balancing durability, repairability
Lenovo has durability and repairability as a close one-two in terms of product attributes, according to John Leiser, director of circular economy services. The company encourages extended life cycles, whether through Lenovo’s certified refurbishment program or any other repair process. That requires Lenovo engineers to look at any aspect of a product to extend its life cycle, he said.
“At the point of time when it goes through refurbishment, (we want to make sure) that it’s easy for a refurbish partner to go in and make repairs, change out component trees — to be able to put it back into the supply chain,” he said.
Panasonic has enlisted AI’s help in the process, Murphy said. The company operates a research lab in China that uses two AI-powered robotic arms to dismantle electronics, running scenarios and recording data on the most effective ways to dismantle them while maintaining component integrity. The company, in turn, uses those learnings to manufacture products.
The industry as a whole has been willing to evolve, in Leiser’s opinion. Companies have to continue to collaborate with downstream partners to find the best solutions to keep more products or their components in use for longer, and he said more creative thinking will hopefully help get more out of what’s already in consumers’ hands.
“The industry is adaptive,” he said. “Over the course of the last 10, 15 years, the extraction processes have yielded an astronomical benefit. We’re going to consistently see that as people are driving and looking at getting more out of less. We will need that to go back into our products.”
