End of life decisions: a design guide

The European Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is due to impactcompanies in the United Kingdom from January 2006 (Tollady, 2005). A key aim of thislegislation is to reduce the environmental impact of electrical and electronic products by makingproducers responsible for recovering, reusing and recycling large percentages of the equipment theymanufacture and import, once it reaches the end of its life. Despite this approaching deadline, theauthors have found that many companies are still unclear about the implications this legislation willhave on the design of their products. A key problem for companies is ensuring that design teamsare aware of the requirements and feel empowered to develop products which are compliant.However, there are currently no practical tools to guide the design decision making process andsupport the development of financially viable, compliant electrical and electronic products.This paper reports on the SortED project which aims to develop an end of life decision makingdesign guide to help companies quickly identify the implications of the WEEE directive on theproducts they design, manufacture and import, by guiding them towards appropriate designsolutions that will help them get maximum revenue out of their products by using the restrictions ofthe Directive as an opportunity for innovation.