Life cycle management in the consumer electronics industry

End producers in the consumer electronics industry are being confronted with environmental policies of governments and international authorities (EC) that include the transfer of responsibility for the end-of-life-treatment to them. The general aim of these policies is to reduce the environmental impact of consumer electronics by reducing both the amount of waste and the potential environmental risk of consumer electronics waste. Improved product design and life cycle analysis are useful tools in this respect, but they are not sufficient. Effective waste reduction requires changes in the production chain. Both technological and organizational innovations in the production chain are required. Such an approach could be called 'life cycle management'. The proposed paper aims to argue that end producers in the consumer electronics industry can and do have to play a role of 'chain director/coordinator', that is to use their dominant position in the industry in order to stimulate the adjustment between environmentally conscious product design and waste minimization by recycling. Developments in the Netherlands indicate that the consumer electronics industry is already moving in this direction. From the perspective of life cycle management the paper tries to connect industrial technology development in materials use and product design of televisions and changes in the structure of the consumer electronics industry.<
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