Electronic Waste

13Circular Economy in Electronics and the Future of e-Waste

Nani Pajunen¹ and Maria E. Holuszko²

¹The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Carbon Neutral Circular Economy, Sustainability Solutions, Itämerenkatu 11-13, PO Box 160, 00181 Helsinki, Finland

²University of British Columbia, Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, 6350 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

13.1 Introduction

The world population’s current standard of living increases the demand for the earth’s finite natural resources. At the same time, population growth and urbanization are challenging these standards. We have been practicing a linear model economy since the Industrial Revolution. As a result of this behavior, we created a scenario, which is frequently referred to as a “take, make, dispose of” world, where we promote a single use of materials and products, creating a one-directional model of mass production, mass consumption, and finally, disposal after a single or limited time of use. This type of model is stretching our planet’s physical limits (Esposito et al. 2018). Hence, it is vital for the planet’s future to implement carbon-neutral and circular-economy solutions into our everyday life, improve strategies in the public and private industry sectors, and develop decision-making policies at the industrial scale. In other words, we need to rethink our business model entirely.

At present, only 9% of the materials already produced are recycled back to use (Statista 2021b). On average, ...