The electronics industry and sustainability: savior or curse?

Repairability

In addition to increasing the recycling rate, repairability is another important factor in achieving a more sustainable electrical industry. Electronic devices, especially smartphones, leverage clever design and manufacturing techniques to meet consumer trends and fashions. Smaller, lighter, and slimmer is the result. However, when your handset drops to the ground, the display records the event for posterity. Phones can be repaired, but the cost is often a significant proportion of the price of a new device. And smartphones are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hard-to-repair electrical appliances.

To combat this, Repair Cafés have grown in popularity. Fixing a range of products, and not just electronics, such groups are made up of volunteers who will repair your appliances or show you how to do it yourself. For the sake of a new cable or connector, otherwise functional devices receive a new lease of life instead of landing in the trash.

Change is also perceptible in the maker space. OKdo launched the Raspberry Pi Renew program in 2021. UK owners of the much loved single board computer (SBC) can return it, where it is assessed and tested by the original manufacturer, Sony. Boards that can be repaired are resold, while the original owner receives a voucher towards a future purchase.

Subtractive vs. additive manufacturing  

The previous examples show measures at the end of the lifecycle of products. However, some options start with the manufacturing process.   

Additive manufacturing techniques also offer a way forward for the sustainable use of raw materials. For example, 3D printers and open-source design software allow us to design replacement plastic parts to repair broken items. But this approach isn’t just for consumers undertaking repairs; it’s also increasingly being evaluated in mass production. PCB (printed circuit board) manufacture has long been a subtractive process, taking copper-clad material and removing the metal from where it isn’t needed. This is wasteful and requires corrosive chemicals and significant quantities of water.   

Companies such as IO Tech are developing additive manufacturing alternatives, using just enough material for the task at hand. Their Continuous Laser Assisted Deposition technology applies conductive materials where they are needed onto foils and substrates and prints solder masks and paste.

Energy efficiency programs

While electrical appliances improve working conditions and operational efficiency, each requires energy to operate. Computers were a rarity, even in offices, in the 1980s. By the 2000s, most office-based employees had a PC and monitor along with access to a printer. To ensure that energy consumption, and not just performance, was the focus of manufacturers, governments and institutions around the world introduced energy efficiency programs.

Initiatives such as the US Energy Star program extend beyond computers and printers to servers, home appliances, and lighting. Since its inception in 1992, it is thought to have saved 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity, achieving a 4 billion tonne reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Energy labels in the EU (Directive 92/75/EC) also guide consumers to efficient appliances, leading to massive improvements. In some categories, class A had to be extended to A+++, and an update in 2017 overhauled the classes, responding to continued advancements in appliance efficiency.

Safe delivery in minimal packaging

Electronic devices are fragile as well as expensive, so it is important to package them in a manner that ensures their safe passage into the consumer’s hands. But, over the years, the sheer quantity of single-use plastic used has become excessive. Companies like Apple have addressed this issue. A 2017 report shows how recycled fiber became the primary packaging material for the iPhone 7, displacing plastic in packaging. Industrial players, like the RS Group, also have packaging on their radar and include it as part of their sustainability commitment to net zero by 2030. Supplying everything from electronics components and tools to test equipment, they are on their way to ensuring 100% of their packaging is widely reusable, recyclable, or compostable and made with 50% recycled content.  

Sustainability in the electronics industry is a topic with a lot of potential

Like any industry, we can point to both the good and the questionable. Children with incurable diabetes are undoubtedly grateful for the simplicity of treatment an insulin pump affords – as are their parents. But, on the other hand, do we really need hundreds of cheap Bluetooth earbuds? And countless further examples can be quickly found.

We are clearly on the right track, but we still have a long way to go. Legislation is helping. Energy efficiency initiatives resulted in preventive measures and innovations that made appliances more efficient than the labelling allowed. All this shows that the market desires more sustainable practices in our industry, which is encouragement for entrepreneurs and start-ups developing transformative technologies like additive manufacturing. In the meantime, it is the responsibility of all of us, from individual consumers to global corporations, to rethink our purchasing decisions, actively seek out opportunities to reuse and recycle, and improve our use of the natural resources upon which we rely.