Reaping What WEEE Sow: The potential for harvesting spare parts for repair and refurbishment
(2021) 4th Conference on Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE)- Abstract
- A Circular Economy (CE) calls for the value of materials and products to be maintained and recovered through narrowing, closing, and slowing loops. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy and not only recycling materials from products, but also capturing value through reuse of components in refurbished and repaired products. In this paper, we examine the practice of “harvesting” spare parts from discarded white goods and consumer electronics in Norway, Sweden and California. Through literature review and interviews, we examine the sources of WEEE and potential spare parts, the use and markets for harvested spare parts, and the harvesting process itself. We identify key conditions, actors, and barriers and discuss... (More)
- A Circular Economy (CE) calls for the value of materials and products to be maintained and recovered through narrowing, closing, and slowing loops. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy and not only recycling materials from products, but also capturing value through reuse of components in refurbished and repaired products. In this paper, we examine the practice of “harvesting” spare parts from discarded white goods and consumer electronics in Norway, Sweden and California. Through literature review and interviews, we examine the sources of WEEE and potential spare parts, the use and markets for harvested spare parts, and the harvesting process itself. We identify key conditions, actors, and barriers and discuss how spare part harvesting could be upscaled to support increasing repair and refurbishment activities, which can increase product lifetimes and reduce waste. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/732cee7c-7391-4a2e-93bf-93e090004340
- author
- Richter, Jessika Luth
LU
; Svensson-Hoglund, Sahra
; Frolov, Tobias
LU
; Dalhammar, Carl
LU
; Thidell, Aake
LU
and Russell, Jennifer
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- host publication
- 4th PLATE 2021 Conference Proceedings : 4th Conference on Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE) - 4th Conference on Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE)
- conference name
- 4th Conference on Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE)
- conference location
- Limerick, Ireland
- conference dates
- 2021-05-26 - 2021-05-28
- project
- Creating a repair society to advance the Circular Economy – policies, networks and people
- Circular Economy: capturing value in waste through extended producer responsibility policies
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 732cee7c-7391-4a2e-93bf-93e090004340
- alternative location
- https://ulir.ul.ie/bitstream/handle/10344/10240/Richter_et_al_2021_Reaping_What_WEEE_Sow.pdf?sequence=2
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-29 13:10:02
- date last changed
- 2022-03-10 11:42:15
@inproceedings{732cee7c-7391-4a2e-93bf-93e090004340, abstract = {{A Circular Economy (CE) calls for the value of materials and products to be maintained and recovered through narrowing, closing, and slowing loops. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy and not only recycling materials from products, but also capturing value through reuse of components in refurbished and repaired products. In this paper, we examine the practice of “harvesting” spare parts from discarded white goods and consumer electronics in Norway, Sweden and California. Through literature review and interviews, we examine the sources of WEEE and potential spare parts, the use and markets for harvested spare parts, and the harvesting process itself. We identify key conditions, actors, and barriers and discuss how spare part harvesting could be upscaled to support increasing repair and refurbishment activities, which can increase product lifetimes and reduce waste.}}, author = {{Richter, Jessika Luth and Svensson-Hoglund, Sahra and Frolov, Tobias and Dalhammar, Carl and Thidell, Aake and Russell, Jennifer}}, booktitle = {{4th PLATE 2021 Conference Proceedings : 4th Conference on Product Lifetimes and the Environment (PLATE)}}, language = {{eng}}, title = {{Reaping What WEEE Sow: The potential for harvesting spare parts for repair and refurbishment}}, url = {{https://ulir.ul.ie/bitstream/handle/10344/10240/Richter_et_al_2021_Reaping_What_WEEE_Sow.pdf?sequence=2}}, year = {{2021}}, }