Mechanical disassembly sequence planning for end-of-life products to maximize recyclability

Tremendous changes in medical sector due to COVID-19 increased the electronic devices usage for self-diagnose and treatment through telemedicine. The unavailability of suitable strategy to manage these devices after their end-of-life made them to settle at landfills and meant for open combustion. The improper treatment of materials in these devices can create harmful cancers to human with their exposure through different routes and leave severe environmental burden at virgin material production for future manufacturing. The current research is aimed to propose a novel environmental risk reduction model to manage e-waste formed in the medical sector due to COVID-19. The risk is characterized into human and eco toxicities after analyzing the hazard identification, exposure route and dose-response parameters to build the risk management model. A scoring system is assigned for categorization of materials into support treatment process after disassembly. The objective function is designed to disassemble the parts with high eco-toxic and low human toxic materials in minimum number of levels. Disassembly actions are suggested by evaluation of threshold limit value to avoid the direct exposure of toxic material to worker through dermal or nasal routes. The theoretical implementation of the proposed model has revealed the human toxicity reduction of 81.73%, 60% and 71% followed by notable environmental toxicity reduction of 87.6%, 63.54% and 78.2 % at landfills, recycling and material production stages compared to current medical e-waste management treatment methods. The proposed environmental risk reduction model can be used to design leachate treated landfills for safe disposal of toxic materials and evaluate the influence of material selection at product development stage to avoid another pandemic with global e-waste debris.