Identifying the impact of the circular economy on the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry Opportunities and challenges for businesses, workers and consumers – mobile phones as an example STUDY

Mobile phones, particularly smartphones, have undergone a period of rapid growth to become virtually indispensable to today's lifestyle. Yet their production, use and disposal can entail a significant environmental burden. This study looks at the opportunities and challenges that arise from implementing circular economy approaches in the mobile phone value chain. A review of the value chain and different circular approaches is complemented by a scenario analysis that aims to quantify the potential impacts of certain circular approaches such as recycling, refurbishment and lifetime extension. The study finds that there is a large untapped potential for recovering materials from both the annual flow of new mobile phones sold in Europe once they reach the end of their life and the accumulated stock of unused, so-called hibernating devices in EU households. Achieving high recycling rates for these devices can offer opportunities to reduce EU dependence on imported materials and make secondary raw materials available on the EU market. As such, policy action would be required to close the collection gap for mobile phone devices. Implementing circular approaches in the mobile phone value chain can furthermore lead to job creation in the refurbishment sector. Extending the lifetime of mobile phones can also provide CO2 mitigation benefits, particularly from displacing the production of new devices

Resource Use and Water Implications of Material Consumption in Consumer Electronics

Rapid technological innovation has introduced a broad spectrum of materials in the consumer electronics sector. Consumption of these materials increases the demand for water and potentially discharge contaminants into the water resources across their life cycle, exacerbating freshwater scarcity and pollution. These water impacts have not yet been fully studied, as most literature on consumer electronics focuses on supply chain energy, carbon footprint, or end of life management. Evaluating water impacts requires data on material content, life cycle water consumption and emissions at spatial level, and availability of impact assessment models that connects life cycle data to water impacts. Data on these aspects are available at varied degrees for different materials used in the electronics. This research created data on materials used in consumer electronics and studied implications on water resources for two major material categories - metals and plastics. Bill of materials (BOMs) data were created for 95 unique consumer electronic products that contain information on mass of major materials and components. Then, life cycle water impacts associated with extraction and production of metals found in consumer electronics are evaluated to identify material hotspots for future improvement. Water impacts were analyzed for individual metals and then for the representative metal profile of case study products (smartphones and laptop computers). Finally, profile of polymers and additives in the e-waste is created to understand linkage to water impacts as well to evaluate implications to establishing e-plastics circular systems. Results indicate that, on the individual material level, precious metals have the highest water impacts in their supply chain. Water scarcity impact is mainly because of water consumed directly for mining operations and indirectly for energy production, and water degradation attributed to metal emissions during mine tailings management. The geographical region where metal production happens is also a contributing factor to water impacts, as water stress varies spatially. Therefore, sourcing metals from regions with lower water stress is an opportunity to reduce supply chain water impacts. At product level, precious metals have the highest contribution per smartphone, whereas aluminum has the highest contribution per laptop. Product design changes, such as use of recycled metal or using a low impact metal are observed to reduce water impacts. Further, e-waste shows a diverse mix of polymers and additives, including flame retardants, pigments, and heavy metals that can potentially pollute water resources if released. As a result, transition to circular systems is important to keep the plastics from entering the environment. To enable this transition, multistakeholder engagement in the electronics sector is required to make an informed decisions in product design, policy planning and material recovery infrastructure

Critical Raw Materials and the Circular Economy – Background report

This report is a background document used by several European Commission services to prepare the EC report on critical raw materials and the circular economy, a commitment of the European Commission made in its Communication ‘EU action plan for the Circular Economy’. It represents a JRC contribution to the Raw Material Initiative and to the EU Circular Economy Action Plan. It combines the results of several research programmes and activities of the JRC on critical raw materials in a context of circular economy, for which a large team has contributed in terms of data and knowledge developments. Circular use of critical raw materials in the EU is analysed, also taking a sectorial perspective. The following sectors are analysed in more detail: mining waste, landfills, electric and electronic equipment, batteries, automotive, renewable energy, defence and chemicals and fertilisers. Conclusions and opportunities for further work are also presented.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Mass Balance as Green Economic and Sustainable Management in WEEE Sector

Abstract This study investigates the treatment procedures of the Large House Hold Appliance to describe the production of secondary raw material within the Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) sector in step with the Circular Economy model. Drawing on the modern accounting system, the project developed a perspective, which highlights accounting technologies (i.e. Environmental Accounting, sustainable performance indicators, Mass Balance) as new adaptive management tools for sustainable firms. The theoretical arguments shown by a longitudinal case study proposes a conceptual framework of the e-waste manage within treatment plants in the Sicilian context. The results demonstrate a percentage analysis by waste fraction of all materials recovered which can be re-use. Then, the recognition of critical raw materials identifies the end of west in implementing a competitive advantage for business growth

Sustainability Implications of Consumer Electronics Adoption in the United States

High rates of technological innovation and consumer adoption in the consumer electronics sector has led to increasing concerns about the potential implications on resource consumption and waste generation. Despite growing public and policy attention on recycling as a strategy to curb resource demand and waste management impacts, less than 50 percent of end-of-life electronics are recovered for recycling in the U.S. A critical barrier to sustainable management of electronics is the lack of data and tools to proactively estimate consumption and waste flows, to create solutions that respond to the dynamic nature of this product sector. For sustainable solutions to keep pace with the rapid rate of innovation, they must be informed by comprehensive and proactive research, that not only quantifies material flows in electronics but also investigates associated economic, environmental and social implications. This dissertation aims to fill this knowledge gap through three interconnected lines of inquiry. First, a baseline material footprint analysis is conducted to retroactively estimate the material consumption and waste generation associated with household electronic product consumption in the U.S. from 1990 until present. Results from this analysis contradict the long-standing assumption that e-waste is a rapidly growing waste stream in the U.S. In fact, the net material footprint of electronics has begun to decline, mainly due to consumers phasing out large Cathode Ray Tube TVs in favor of lighter flat panel technologies. While the analysis shows decline in potential e-waste toxicity from traditional hazards like lead and mercury, it also raises new issues of concern for e-waste management. Notably, results show high resource potential in the emerging e-waste stream with new opportunities to recover scarce metals not currently recycled. Second, a predictive material flow model based on historic product adoption behavior was developed, to enable future forecasts of resource and waste flows so that stakeholders can create proactive – rather than reactive – solutions. Adoption forecasts for emerging technologies show increasingly fast windows of product innovation and uptake. In other words, new electronics are likely to have rapid uptake in the market but may be quickly replaced by subsequent product innovations. The forecasts also suggest that waste flows for mature products like CRTs, desktops, monitors and flat panel TVs will continue to be a major issue for the short term, with declining contribution to the U.S. e-waste stream in the future. Material flow estimations predict increasing prevalence of critical materials in e-waste underscoring a need to shift e-waste management mechanisms from ‘mass’ to ‘materials’, or in other words, from an emphasis on ‘waste diversion’ to a new focus on ‘resource retention’. Finally, a comprehensive set of sustainability metrics were created and applied to assess the economic, environmental and social impacts for the wide spectrum of materials used in electronics. Material metrics help identify key material hotspots and prioritize new solutions for reducing resource demand and waste management challenges. This dissertation contributes novel data and modeling tools that can aid stakeholders across the electronics industry in making informed decisions in product design, policy planning and material recovery in electronics

Consumer perspectives on arranging circular economy in Finland

The article identifies consumer perspectives related to the activities that facilitate circular economy transitions across major consumption domains. Building on insights from surveys on the circular economy, we review consumer perspectives in the key consumption domains of food, housing, and transport, as well as consumer electronics. Our focus is on the responsibility for organizing the reuse of products and services, the preferred procedures for extending the lifespan of products and services, and the ways to acquire products and services. Analyzing responses from a representative survey of the population in Finland in 2018 (n=1555), we argue that consumers’ perspectives vary significantly across the domains examined. The responsibility for reuse is attributed mainly to consumers themselves, particularly in housing and consumer electronics. Personal activities are also highlighted in the extension of product and service lifespans in the domains of consumer electronics and transportation. As for acquisitions, the respondents overwhelmingly favored ownership over services or sharing. Further, statistically significant differences due to gender, age, education, income level, and household size were observed. The results indicate that domain-specific strategies to promote circularity that consider consumers’ backgrounds are likely to attract a better response from consumers than an all-encompassing approach.Peer reviewe

Material Use and its Sustainability in the Automotive Industry

Among sectors in the United States, the transportation sector contributes the most to greenhouse gas emissions (USEPA, 2018) at 28%. A complex mix of market dynamics, demographics, and technological changes like material type (e.g. lightweighting techniques), fuel type (e.g. biogas), vehicle mode (e.g. internal combustion) and recyclability (Lewis et al., 2019) is employed to combat theses emissions. While these changes presumably effect linear level contributions and impacts, it is important to objectively determine their effects and impacts at a systems level. This research studied the material use implication of two major technological changes – lightweighting and electrification. The study involved the quantification and analysis of losses attributed to the dissipation of critical and strategic metals – e.g., copper (Cu), magnesium (Mg), chromium (Cr), etc. – and examined the attendant accumulation of tramp elements in the recycled lightweight material stream. The increasing demand for Cu in the adoption of electric vehicles was also analyzed. Finally, the study analyzes the impacts of these transitions on other industries that may be directly or indirectly connected to the automotive industry at different life cycle stages of the typical vehicle. Results show that the “losses” associated with these transitions are not insignificant and occur throughout the life cycle of the vehicle. They are particularly concentrated at the end-of-life stage of the vehicle and thus technological and operational strategies need to be employed to abate these losses and improve material circularity. In addition, the transition to electrification results in an increase in the demand for Cu that will, in the long-term, lead to a strain in copper supply. Therefore, enhancing alternative sourcing for Cu from post-consumer scrap is imperative for a long-term sustenance of vehicle electrification. Further observation of the flow of Cu, at its end-of-life, shows that while an alarming volume of copper may be recorded as “loss”, and thus not achieving a closed copper cycle loop, a significant portion of it should more appropriately be characterized as “unusable in the copper stream” as it is technically not lost, but trapped in other material stream. Therefore, while non-circularity might linearly exist for copper, an elevated point of view might show an interconnected circularity with other material stream that is acceptable from a sustainability standpoint. Secondly, the trade ban on scrap export to China – the largest importer of U.S. copper scrap – has presumably impacted the usual modus operandi in scrap processing, causing a disruption in the flow of copper and a local accumulation of copper scrap that is normally not domestically processed for recycling. This, as a result, has led to an increase in the recent volumes that are recorded as “lost” in the copper cycle. Regardless of the lift (or not) of the trade ban, it is important to incorporate improved recycling technologies to eliminate losses because of abandoned, but recyclable material to ensure a robust secondary copper supply. It is also acknowledged that policy mandates and interventions will play a huge role in achieving this goal

Circular supply chain management: A definition and structured literature review

Circular economy is increasingly recognized as a better alternative to the dominant linear (take, make, and dispose) economic model. Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM), which integrates the philosophy of the circular economy into supply chain management, offers a new and compelling perspective to the supply chain sustainability domain. Consequently, there is increasing research interest. However, a review of the extant literature shows that a comprehensive integrated view of CSCM is still absent in the extant literature. This prohibits a clear distinction compared to other supply chain sustainability concepts and hinders further progress of the field. In response, this research first classifies various terminologies related to supply chain sustainability and conceptualizes a unifying definition of CSCM. Using this definition as a base, it then conducts a structured literature review of 261 research articles on the current state of CSCM research. Based on the review results, the researchers call for further studies in the following directions that are important but received little or no attention: design for circularity, procurement and CSCM, biodegradable packaging, circular supply chain collaboration and coordination, drivers and barriers of CSCM, circular consumption, product liabilities and producer's responsibility, and technologies and CSCM

Sustainable Development Goals, Circularity and the Data Centre Industry: a Review of Real-world Challenges in a Rapidly Expanding Sector

The last three decades have seen rapid growth in the Data Centre Industry (DCI), which has significantly affected the world we live in today. With the supposedly positive impact of digital technologies, nobody questioned the sustainability of the industry for many years. Only recently, research has started to identify the trade-offs of information and communication technology, particularly for data centres. The increasing environmental concerns sparked discussions about sustainability in many industries, governments and communities, including the DCI. Although the relationship between business and the goal of pursuing sustainability remains complicated and has not been fully explored through research, various studies have emphasised the need to move beyond business as usual. Therefore, businesses within the DCI need to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offset the significant impacts of this sector on the environment, including resource depletion, critical raw materials’ extraction and unethical labour practices. This chapter presents an overview of this unique sector in the context of the impacts across three pillars of sustainability and summaries circular economy-inspired initiatives. Furthermore, it reviews opportunities for the sector to contribute to the SDGs and presents research gaps in present awareness and approaches to tackling the SDGs