A method for manual disassembly analysis to support the ecodesign of electronic displays

Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in contemporary societies. Proper treatment and recovery of WEEE is an important challenge not only because of its content on hazardous substances but also because it contains significant quantities of valuable materials. The pre-processing stage of WEEE recycling plays a major role in the recovery network, in particular when carried out through manual dismantling processes. Dismantling allows components to be separated prior to further treatment. However, recycling organisations usually find this particular stage considerably time-consuming, and hence expensive, since products are not designed to be easily dismantled. One particular waste stream that could reduce dismantling costs through an improved design is the stream of Flat PanelDisplays (FPD). However, little detailed data is nowadays available on the dismantling processes, which prevent designing FPD according to the requirements of treatment operators. The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for in-depth analysis of dismantling practices of electronic displays in order to obtain useful data for product design. The method is composed of three stages: (1) study definition, (2) data construction and (3) data analysis. The first stage allows setting out why, how and where the analysis will be performed. The second stage consists in describing dismantling operations in detail to construct a detailed and meaningful dataset. Finally, product indicators are developed and the best and worst design practices from a dismantling point of view are identified. The approach is illustrated through a case study on the manual dismantling of 12 FPD. The sample was dismantled at one of the European recycling facility representatives. Data on the dismantling time spent on each component, operation and tool was obtained. Collected data can be used as empirical evidence to support the development of quantitative ecodesign strategies. Some examples of ecodesign strategies that can significantly reduce the dismantling time of the sample are given. This work opens perspectives on how the quantitative data from the recovery phase obtained within the study can be used in product design. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.