End-of-life treatment from technical and economical perspectives-a cornerstone of efficient design for recycling

Emending take-back legislation and rising customer awareness drive manufacturers to implement design for recycling initiatives. At Nokia Multimeda Terminals in Sweden, a study was carried out to improve the design of satellite receivers. The study included how take-back legislation will motivate design changes, and what effect present and future end-of-life treatment technology could have on the design. From this, design guidelines were generated. It became obvious that top priority should be to avoid hazardous substances. Whether to also design the product for easy disassembly could not be distinctly determined since these kinds of products are likely to be mechanically processed when reaching their end-of-life phase.