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iNEMI Team Develops Reuse and Recycling Metric

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!

After evaluating existing recyclability and reusability metrics, the iNEMI Reuse and Recycling Metrics project concluded that the industry has limited means of practically assessing the circular economic value (recyclability, reusability, reparability and refurbish-ability) of information and communication technology (ICT) products. The project team has addressed this gap by developing a practical recycling metric that incorporates key factors to estimate relative impact of product design features as well as the ability to recover and return value to the market. Included in this metric are features that are within the product designer’s control, such as material choice and ease of liberation of components and materials, and those factors outside the designer’s control, such as the availability of recovery technologies in the markets where the product is placed. The resulting metric assesses the economic feasibility and physical practicality of returning value to the market from ICT products after their first use.

A critical area where other recycling metrics have fallen short is by failing to include the economic realities of recycling. A product’s or material’s potential to be recycled or repaired does not mean it actually is recycled or repaired. There are striking differences in recovery rates based on economics, driven primarily by:

By Lisa Dender, IBM on January 16, 2019 10:30:09 AM EST