2019•10•11 Bonn
European Commission-funded project with UN support urges consumers to favour products containing plastics recycled from electronic waste; Philips and Whirlpool among first firms offering support by designing products to use more recycled plastic, ease plastic reuse at product end-of-life; most consumers see no difference in quality, appearance, performance
Bonn, 11 October 2019 — A European Commission-funded project supported by the United Nations is calling for consumers to demand electronic and electrical products made with recycled plastic, and for manufacturers to redesign products to both improve recyclability and integrate recycled plastics in new products.
The call is made by PolyCE (Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy), a multinational consortium led by Fraunhofer IZM and consisting of universities (United Nations University, Bonn; University of Ghent, Belgium; Technical University Berlin; and University of Northampton, UK), civil society organisations (European Environmental Bureau), and numerous companies — including Philips and Whirlpool. The 20 partners launching the two-year campaign are based or operate in nine countries: Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Finland, USA, and UK.
According to the Nordic Council of Ministers, plastics account for about 20% of all materials in electronic and electrical equipment (EEE), and most of it not designed for recovery and reuse. The PolyCE consortium is launching a two-year campaign to raise awareness among consumers and manufacturers in order to change their attitudes towards recycled plastics and improve their market uptake.
Says project partner Kim Ragaret, University of Gent: “Plastics are a valuable resource with a great potential for circularity. Plastics themselves aren’t the problem; our so-called plastics problems relate to attitudes and waste management.”
Plastics are essential for making many different components of electronic and electrical products, including phones, computers, TVs, vacuum cleaners, hairdryers, and household appliances. According to PolyCE consortium experts, products can be designed in ways that make material recovery of plastic components easier.
Of the more than 12 million tonnes of e-waste expected next year in Europe (EU, Norway, and Switzerland), an estimated 2.5 million tonnes (23%) will be plastics.
That’s the weight equivalent of 62,500 fully-loaded 40-tonne trucks — enough to form a line from Rome to Frankfurt — and 2.5 times the 1 million tonnes of plastic land-filled as e-waste components in the year 2000.
The PolyCE consortium noted a report from Sweden found that, globally, just 10% of higher grade plastics from durable goods is recovered and recycled worldwide today, which compares poorly with average 50% to 90% recovery and recycling rates for metals and glass).
The project illustrates through a number of demonstrators that making EEE-containing high-quality recycled plastics is economically feasible for manufacturers, and the products are just as long-lasting and durable as those containing virgin plastics. In addition, buying EEE-containing recycled plastics offers many other benefits for the environment.
Recycling plastic would not only take pressure off waste systems (in Europe, some 31% of plastic waste still enters landfills while 39% is incinerated ), but every tonne recycled would also help avoid up to 3 tonnes of CO2 emissions created making new plastic.
A recent consumer survey, carried out by the PolyCE project, found that half of respondents didn’t know if they’d ever bought a tech product that included recycled plastic. Of the 25% who said yes to the question, 86% noticed no difference in quality, appearance, or performance.
Informed about the health and environmental benefits of recycled plastic components in EEE, 95% of those surveyed confirmed that they’d buy products with that feature. According to the survey, while consumers show high willingness to act in line with the circular economy, actual engagement is still pretty low, unfortunately. But communication is key.
“The consumer has absolutely vital roles in a sustainable, circular economy and manufacturing system”, says UNU e-waste expert Ruediger Kuehr. “The first is to postpone replacing electronic and electrical products by repairing old ones. And when these products are discarded, recycle them properly — help turn refuse into resources for the sake of the planet’s health and our own. Finally, consumers should favour products made with recycled plastic and use their individual purchasing power to support products that have designed out waste and designed in reused materials.”
Manufacturers, meanwhile, need to improve designs so that a product’s plastic components are more
easily recovered for recycling, use recycled plastic in their products, and advertise that feature to
consumers.
“Major environmental and financial savings could be achieved simply through better design”, adds Dr
Kuehr. “For some products, such as tablet computers and smartphones, a majority of their manufacturing
costs and environmental consequences are the results of decisions made at the product design stage.”
“In the end, realisation of a circular economy will be a joint effort between product designers, manufacturers, and material recyclers, as well as consumers.”
As part of the two-year public awareness campaign, short videos featuring both consumers and
experts will highlight the benefits of choosing recycled over virgin plastics. The first videos are
available on YouTube for preview:
The success of the initiative is relevant to several of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals — especially SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and
communities), and SDG 13 (climate action).
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Plastics, EEE (electronic and electrical equipment) and e-waste
Global
Europe (EU, Norway, Switzerland)
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PolyCE (Post-Consumer High-tech Recycled Polymers for a Circular Economy) is a European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 project dedicated to finding solutions to the hurdles in the implementation of the Circular Economy, specifically for the EEE sector. The upcoming results of the project will highlight incentives for consumers as well as produce policy recommendations for lawmakers and technical guidelines for plastics recyclers in order to support the development of a circular economy of WEEE plastics.
PolyCE is a consortium of 20 expert organisations taking on the challenge of reducing e-waste plastics, promoting a circular economy, and building a future-oriented knowledge transfer base. By reducing the use of virgin plastics and raising the use of recycled plastics in new electronics products and applications, PolyCE will:
Partners
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PolyCE project information
● Website: https://www.polyce-project.eu/
● Blog: https://medium.com/@PolyCE_EU
● Expert network subscription: https://www.polyce-project.eu/contact/expert-network-subscription/
● Twitter: https://twitter.com/PolyCE_EU
● Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/55eef0c66ee4/polyce-newsletter-january-2019
Press Contacts
Violeta Nikolova, +49 228 815 0239; +4917681064402; Nikolova@vie.unu.edu
Ruediger Kuehr, +49-228-815-0213 kuehr@unu.edu
Terry Collins, +1-416-878-8712; tc@tca.tc