The electronics industry is facing an interesting issue: how to replace the shrinking supply of materials with the rising volume of electronic junk? The solution is innovative, sustainable strategies.
The increasing digitalization of industries and the rising volume of digital services are driving up demand for electronic products. The world's consumption of electronics is predicted to nearly double in 2050. The amount that electronic debris is increasing at the rate of 6.5% every year, but less than 20% of it is effectively recycled.
It is essential to find a balance between the rapid growth of the electronics industry, the need for resources, and environmental standards to ensure the availability of resources in the near future.
These five ideas could change the field:
Eco-friendly design
Environmental goals should be integrated into the design process and the technical specifications for all products during their lifetime. The goals of an eco-friendly design include the following: the efficient use of energy, materials as well as flexible and long life cycles and the possibility of recycling materials. It is essential to design products so that they allow every component to separate at each time of the process and utilized it in secondary ways. One approach to ensuring that there is no waste in circulation is to make use of secondary raw materials within new industrial ecosystems.
Sustainable alternatives to raw materials
The electronics industry has to use more raw materials built on sustainable natural resources. A good example is cellulosic materials like nano-cellulose and paper. Nanocellulose may replace PET films used in electronic devices or FR4 on circuit boards since it's almost as long-lasting. Nano-cellulose could be made into much thinner films with less material. Nanocellulose made from fibres is a renewable natural resource and is completely biodegradable.
New biodegradable materials
The electronics industry also requires bioplastic that can be safely broken down into water and carbon dioxide. These materials are essential to create new solutions, like single-use diagnostic tests for consumers, and sensors to measure the farm conditions and environmental conditions for meteorological reasons. Electronic components used in these applications should be biodegradable, at a minimum, over time. A different example is biodegradable smart packaging for food items. Sensors that are attached to the packaging could be used, for instance, to monitor temperature or to determine retrospectively if the cold chain has breached. The components must be biodegradable to avoid issues with the processing of packaging garbage. The demand for new bioplastics is increasing; hence, production numbers are increasing. These materials are more resilient to moisture than alternatives made of cellulose and are a good candidate for creating innovative solutions.
Manufacturing techniques that are energy efficient and use less material
The majority of the techniques used in the production of electronics are built on removing material throughout the process. Printing and other roll-to-roll technologies, however, are specifically designed to include material in the areas where it is required. This helps reduce waste in the process of manufacturing.
Recycling of components and materials
Biodegradable products aren't ideal for every situation; for those situations, the answer is the circular economy. For instance, 1.5 billion new mobile phones enter the market each year. The old handsets are thrown away in drawers on desks or in the garbage, meaning that their components and materials disappear. The materials must get back to business and be used again.
