Market Sector Approach: Electronics
Business Opportunities
Industry Priorities for Advancing Circularity: Electronics
- Harmonize recycling circularity standards across electronics supply chains to track and verify recycled content. The electronics industry can do this by adding more specific plastics processing requirements through R2 and E-stewards standards. Expanding R2 standards may require additional support globally given 530 facilities use R2 standards in 21 countries worldwide.
- Government incentives to use and support purchase of electronics with greater recycled durable plastic content can help drive greater market acceptance and uptake of more circular products.
This includes the ability to achieve properties similar to original materials, through customer showcases (e.g., Microsoft Ocean Plastics Mouse), success stories on electronics recycling and its impact on sustainability, and outreach efforts that educate consumers about environmental benefits of recycling durable plastics. Life-cycle analyses quantifying the environmental benefits of PCR resins in electronics can inform messaging.
Incentive programs similar to “bottle buy-back” programs could help further encourage consumer participation.
This includes sorting and advanced manufacturing to expand processing of both high-value electronics plastics and small-volume, less-easily recycled plastics found in electronics, such as TV frames. Additional research is also needed to understand any performance degradation associated with the recycling of durable plastics in electronics, given the faster pace of turnover in electronics compared to longer-lived applications.
In Canada, industry-led (regulated) EPR approaches for electronics have provided revenue required for effective collection and processing of devices and the resulting materials, including plastics. In these programs, environmental handling fees agreed upon by electronics firms and retailers provides revenue to support collection and recycling efforts. Developing models for the United States that build on these successes will accelerate circularity of durable plastics in this sector.
Five states have already passed “Right-to-Repair” legislation with over 20 bills submitted in states to add “Right-to-Repair.” These programs and laws make it more accessible and economical for consumers to repair and upgrade their products, including repair options not involving the original equipment manufacturer, thereby lengthening the lifespan of electronics while reducing the number of new materials required by allowing individual components to be replaced rather than the whole product.