The Circular Electronic Partnership's Design Guide Aims to Help Address the Growing E-Waste Problem

The Circular Electronics Partnership (CEP), an industry group built of members including Accenture, Amazon, Dell, Google, and Microsoft, has released its Circular Electronics Design Guide — hoping to guide manufacturers into decisions, which could help tackle the ever-growing electronic waste (e-waste) problem.

"Product design holds immense potential in transforming the present linear model of production and consumption of electronics," claims Daniel Reid, the CEP's head of secretariat. "The development and use of this extensive resource on circular design can help address many of the barriers to the industry transition that the Circular Electronics Roadmap outlines. We commend the efforts of the contributing experts and wish to make this guide a daily companion for those looking to innovate, scale, and transform their organization."

The e-waste problem is hard to understate: each year 62 million tonnes of surplus or faulty electronics enter the waste stream, a figure that is projected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to rise to 80 million tonnes by 2030. This is, of course, unsustainable — and, the group claims, needs to be considered from the design point forward.

"Designing electronics for a circular economy is a challenge — but one worth embracing. Building a circular model requires both the vision and the infrastructure to support it. While there’s no single solution, OEMs can take practical steps toward circular design," says iFixit's Brittany McCrigler, among the 25 organizations that contributed to the report including modular smartphone specialist Fairphone, HP, Logitech, and Philips. "This guide provides a roadmap for OEMs in consumer electronics, packed with advice from researchers, practitioners, and trailblazing OEMs. It’s an invaluable resource for anyone looking to implement sustainable practices in electronics."

The guide issued by the CEP delivers a blueprint for a four-step "circular innovation process," asking companies to enable, frame, plan, and implement approaches to both reduce the amount of electronics heading into the waste stream and to help recover valuable materials from hardware that can't help but be scrapped — with around $91 billion in metals wasted each year, the organization claims, through a lack of proper recycling. The guide also offers a "transition map" that, it says, was created while "balancing the macro and micro level views needed for successful circular design."

"Through thoughtful design, we have the unique opportunity to influence the sustainability and longevity of electronic products," claims Teun van Wetten, of project lead Accenture. "However, meaningful change cannot be achieved in isolation. It requires the concerted efforts of all parties involved—from designers and engineers to manufacturers, policymakers, and end-users. Without collaboration, our impact will be limited and superficial."

The guide is available to download now on the CEP website.