Electronics can trigger a more circular, sustainable world – here’s how

We want a world where there is less – or ideally, no - waste. In this more ‘circular’ world, we take, make and recreate in continuous loops, preventing waste from ever entering landfills or polluting our environment.

That approach can be a critical cog in tackling climate change, as a transition to renewable energy will only get us so far. If the world does not respond to the need for circularity then the resources needed for new products will not be as available as they currently are now.

Over the past few years, however, the world has become less circular, as repeatedly stressed in the annual Circularity Gap Report. By not maximizing circularity, we are not maximizing the tools at our disposal to protect our resources and work toward decarbonisation.

Applying circular strategies to the manufacturing of electronics is part of a much larger shift that needs to happen across industries. While using recycled content is never straightforward, understanding the challenges in a field as complicated as electronics is the first step on the path to a more circular future.

With some materials and some products, the use of recycled content is straightforward. For example, people understand that when you toss a water bottle into a recycling bin, at some point it comes back as a new water bottle or something else made with the plastic. Using recycled content is not that simple with electronics products, due to the following factors:

A circular economy for electronics has long been an area of focus and innovation for Dell Technologies. We pioneered the use of post-consumer recycled plastics in our OptiPlex desktops starting in 2008. And in 2014 Dell was the first to achieve a certified closed-loop process which takes plastics from recycled electronics and processes it for use in creating new plastic parts for new computers. To date Dell has used millions of pounds of recycled plastic, closing the loop on plastic for more than 125 different product lines.

Our success has emboldened our approach, and last year we set a new moonshot goal for 2030 where for every product a customer buys, we will reuse or recycle an equivalent product, 100% of packaging will be made from recycled or renewable material, and more than half of product content will be made from recycled or renewable material.

And we are driving ourselves to uncover innovative new materials and processes to get to that goal. We have recently begun making some of our laptop lids from bioplastics from tree waste used in the paper making process. We’ve also spearheaded pilot programs to put recycled materials like rare-earth magnets from our take-back programs back into parts.

These changes have taught us key lessons about what’s needed to truly drive a circular economy for electronics. They include:

Such steps are key to creating industry-wide standards and common definitions for circular electronic products and services. Additionally, harmonization of regulations globally to ensure the ethical and responsible movement of materials across borders would help increase where they can be used for circular purposes which include repair, reuse and recycling.

As an industry, we also need to drive demand for circular products and services to stimulate circular procurement of electronics at global scale. And in order to recycle and reuse electronic waste, we need to have a consistent and robust supply of out-of-use materials and a way of aggregating this waste for reuse and recycling. Where we can’t close the loop within our own electronic waste streams, we need to find, define and scale secondary waste materials from other industries. Only by joining forces can the electronics industry accelerate the transition to a truly circular economy.

It’s not enough to ‘do less harm.’ For a more sustainable world, the technology sector must rethink its business models, shift away from linear sales and toward as-a-service models that better enable the recirculation of materials and the extension of lifespans.

We have focused on sustainability for decades and have developed a deep understanding of our responsibility and the role we need to play in protecting our planet. This allows us to drive innovation and new ways of manufacturing, creating products and bringing out-of-use products back into our supply chain to accelerate the circular economy, making a measurable, scalable, positive impact.

With these mindsets in place across the sector, IT can be an enabler for the broader circular economy. From collecting and analysing trusted data in real-time using edge computing and 5G wireless technologies, to redesigning global supply chains to create greater efficiencies and less waste, technology has the power to reshape the world.

The circular economy is a journey, not a destination, but every step from every stakeholder will be critical.