Chapter 6: Sustainability

Title: Design influences in end-of-life treatment of wastes of electrical and electronic equipment: state of art and perspectives

Author(s): Anastasia Katsamaki, Nikolaos Bilalis

Address: Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania Crete, Greece | Technical University of Crete, University Campus, 73100 Chania Crete, Greece

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2009 pp. 279 - 289

Abstract/Summary: The design stage in a product life-cycle is an expression of art and science. It covers current or future needs and creates novel products or improves existing ones. In this stage there exists more flexibility to adjust the product to cover current or future needs since it is the first stage in the forward product life cycle. Improvements in early stages of a product life-cycle can reduce the negative impacts of end-of-life (EOL) products in the environment and the optimal implementation of the appropriate applied EOL strategy. Existing bibliography concerning these two issues is described for wastes of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and a draft design of a proposed system that assists in the choice of the optimum EOL strategy to be applied and afterwards based on its implementation gives feedback data in the design phase is presented.

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