Danish companies lead the way in circular electronics

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Danish companies lead the way in circular electronics

Press release published 20th December 2024.

While the amount of electronic waste worldwide is growing, a group of Danish companies and knowledge partners have been working to make it easier to refurbish, reuse and recycle used electronics in the CirkEL partnership. And the industry is in a hurry, as easier access to repair and recycling will become part of EU legislation in a few years.

Electronics are all the rage under the tree

From smartphones and games consoles to TVs and headphones. Electronics usually take up a lot of space under the Christmas tree, and according to figures from Pricerunner, electronics were in seven out of ten of the most visited product categories leading up to Black Friday 2024. But the joy of the products is shorter than it should be.

- Generally speaking, consumer electronics suffer from not being designed to be repairable. This shortens the lifespan of products and contributes to the increasing amount of electronic waste. But in the coming years, manufacturers will be faced with increasing demands for increased durability, recyclability and repairability, so the market will favour those who are making the transition now, says Project Manager Aisha Rafique from Danish Technological Institute.

More reuse, refurbishment and recycling

For the past two years, a number of players in the electronics industry have been working together in the CirkEL partnership to improve opportunities for reuse, refurbishment and recycling of electronics products.

- With CirkEL, we have gained an important space for the exchange of knowledge and ideas across the value chain of electronic products. Overall, it has given us a big knowledge boost and a better basis for decision-making, but it has also led to new collaborations and solutions, says Kenneth Kaasgaard, Head of Circular Solutions, from Ragn-Sells Danmark A/S, which manually handles tonnes of discarded electronics for reuse and recycling.

From vacuum cleaner repair kits to headphone cleaning concepts

Among the tangible solutions to extend the life of modern consumer electronics is an innovative cleaning process that can clean in-ear headphones without damaging electronics and batteries. The process has been tested on headphones from project partner B&O and the results look promising.

- In-ear headphones can clog over time and damage the sound quality, and there are currently limited repair options for these products. Therefore, we want to offer an alternative that is more sustainable than discarding the products," says Jonas Tedde, Head of Development and founder of Techsave, which developed the cleaning process.

In parallel, B&O has developed a concept to upgrade older high-end speakers with new components and is exploring new business models based on take-back.

In CirkEL, Nilfisk has worked to make it easier to repair both cheap vacuum cleaners and expensive industrial floor cleaning machines. The goal is for consumers to have access to repair kits so that the vacuum cleaner can be used for longer.

Old electronics hold the gold of the future

Extraction of critical metals and earths is a separate issue in electronic waste. Therefore, Danish Technological Institute has worked in CirkEL to map both plastic types and all metals and earth elements in selected products. In the same connection, ELDAN Recycling and Trebo, with their unique technologies, have conducted experiments on the extraction of critical resources and plastic types.

- Mapping and better extraction of critical resources is part of the knowledge needed in a future circular economy for electronics products, where security of supply also plays an important role, says Project Manager Aisha Rafique.

The results from CirkEL will be presented at a conference on circular electronics on 15 January 2025 at Danish Technological Institute in Aarhus. The project partners will also demonstrate some of the new solutions, and Schneider Electric will reveal how they are setting new standards for what can be achieved in circular product design with the classic LK FUGA socket and switchgear.

Facts and figures

Denmark generates 22.4kg per capita of electronic waste annually. That's three times more than the global average of 7.8kg. Figures from 2022 according to the UN.

Several EU directives aim to reduce electronic waste with requirements for increased durability, reduced environmental impact and better reparability, such as the CSRD Directive, Ecodesign Directive and Right to Repair.

CirkEL is a collaboration between Bang & Olufsen, Schneider Electric, Nilfisk, KK Wind Solutions, Ragn-Sells Denmark, European Recycling Platform, Techsave, ELDAN Recycling, Trebo and Danish Technological Institute. The partnership is supported by the Ministry of the Environment's Environmental Technology Development and Demonstration Programme (MUDP).