Analysis of material efficiency aspects of Energy related Product for the development of EU Ecolabel criteria. Analysis of product groups: personal computers and electronic displays
The objective of this report is to provide scientific support to the analysis of potential material-efficiency criteria that can help reduce the potential environmental impacts and improve the reuse and recycling of portable computers and electronic displays. The study includes first the definition of the product group, a description of the bill of materials, the analysis of the design for repair and dismantling, a description of their End of Life (EoL), a review of environmental criteria specific for each product group, and then an analysis of some relevant environmental aspects. Material efficiency criteria for EU Ecolabel are developed using criteria already existing in other environmental schemes as the Blue Angel, the Nordic Swan and the IEEE 1860 family standard. For portable computers, the analysis focus on the dismantling of batteries in newer portable computers models (namely sub-notebooks and PC-tablets). The criterion proposed establishes a certain number of steps to separate battery packs, and thus to ease their replacement for maintenance and reuse, and their separation for recycling. For electronic displays, the criterion ‘design for dismantling and recycling’ is formulated as the time needed to extract key components pointed as relevant from an environmental point of view, as also proposed in the latest revision of the Ecodesign regulation. For both product groups, a criterion for ‘Material selection and compatibility with recycling’ is suggested in order to improve the recyclability of plastics by the use of single polymers or polymer blends compatible with recycling as well as the use of other substances that are all compatible with recycling.
TALENS PEIRO Laura;
ARDENTE Fulvio;
MATHIEUX Fabrice;
2016-07-21
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC100785
978-92-79-57273-9,
1831-9424,
EUR 27793,
OP LB-NA-27793-EN-N,
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC100785,
10.2788/642541,
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