Innovative solution to reduce landfill e-waste

UK company In2tec has developed sustainable production techniques that address the way electronics are currently recycled. In doing so, it is delivering on agreed waste recycling protocols and looking to work with government to further embed these protocols in the electronics manufacturing processes. The company manufactures flexi and flexi-hybrid printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) which have enhanced how manufacturers package their products, allowing for more three-dimensional design platforms that wouldn’t be possible with conventional PCBA materials.

In2tec’s latest innovation has been developed across 15 years and has now reached a stage where it can be presented to the public and implemented for mass-volume production by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Currently when electronics are recycled through the Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) protocol, the PCBAs are removed, shredded and ultimately sent to landfill with no prospect of ever breaking down. In2tec’s solution is an unzippable PCBA that allowed the electronic components to be removed and reused in other technologies.

The solution uses the same manufacturing principles that underpin In2tec’s Smart HMI technologies. In using proprietary electronics design and manufacturing techniques, along with patented conductive adhesives, inter-layer adhesives, printed inks and dielectrics, In2tec delivers printed circuit board assemblies that can be recycled, allowing for the components to re-enter the supply chain.

In2tec developed this technology under the names ReUSE: the manufacturing of unzippable electronics assembles and ReCYCLE: the ultra-low energy disassembly process. “We wanted to introduce circularity to the electronics industry. Currently electronics are sent to landfill after an average of just five years’ use, yet the components in this technology can have a lifetime usage of over 25 years. Our ReUSE technology allows these components to be utilised to their full lifespan, while also reducing the effects of the ongoing chip shortage, preventing excessive CO₂ output and providing circularity for the electronics industry,” said Neil Armstrong, Managing Director of In2tec.

Using ReUSE on 2.5% of the world’s PCBA production per annum would reportedly save over 2.4 billion tonnes of CO₂ and over 25 kilo tonnes of waste electronics going to landfill. The In2tec ReCYCLE process allows electronics recyclers to properly recover electronic components and feed the new market for second life components, which can fund the whole recycling process in the long run.

“Circularity in electronics is one front we can win. We can’t continue to mine precious resources to manufacture circuit board assemblies and we don’t have to. The ReUSE and ReCYCLE program changes the costing mechanism by making recycling a value chain, not a cost chain to manufacturers and recyclers, bringing circularity to the lifecycle of electronics rather than being a straight line from supplier to landfill,” said Emma Armstrong, Sustainable Electronics Ambassador at In2tec.

Image credit: iStock.com/D-Keine