Abstract
Increasing consumption of the Earth's finite resources has become a major environmental concern facing society today. Improving resource efficiency of all industry sectors is a necessity for the journey towards sustainability. Consequently, a number of approaches to resource and material efficiency have arisen, including the increasingly popular concept of Circular Economy, which now underpins much of the EU's eco-design policy. Yet, our understanding of the climate impact of material efficiency approaches remains limited. Therefore, the aim of this research is to critically assess the feasibility and environmental benefit of implementing material efficiency strategies through the example of games consoles.
Due to the wide variety of material efficiency strategies, opportunities and challenges, this research is formed of three projects. Chapters 2 and 3 first investigate eco-design approaches relating to the recovery of two circular economy 'priority materials' relevant to games consoles. Chapter 2 investigates and assesses the implications of plastics recycling practices for current and future eco-design measures influencing the recyclability of plastics from electronic products in Europe. Chapter 3 investigates the presence of CRMs in games consoles and determine the implications for current and near-future eco-design measures addressing CRM recyclability within electronic products in Europe. Finally, Chapter 4 estimates the average life cycle carbon footprint of a PlayStation® 4 to calculate the impact of different material efficiency strategies on durability, repairability and recyclability.
The research presented in this thesis has helped to improve understanding of the environmental benefits of CE and material efficiency strategies for electronic products. The findings show that generic assumptions of the circular economy concept cannot be relied on to determine the best environmental outcomes for products. Additionally, the results highlighted the challenges with implementing these approaches in practice. Therefore, science-based assessments and targets are critical to developing strategies and policies to assist society's journey towards sustainable development.