Incorporating end-of-life strategy in product definition

This paper presents the critical importance of integrating end-of-life strategies in the early stages of design, i.e., product definition. They begin with an overview of research and practice on design for environment (DFE) in the United States. DFE has been receiving increasing attention in US academia and industry, but the level of implementation remains low compared to Europe or Japan. The survey starts with a broad perspective on industrial ecology and proceeds to recyclability. The paper concludes with the authors' recent research on incorporating end-of-life strategies into product definition.