Chalmers University of Technology, Division of Environmental Systems Analysis, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Vera Sandbergs Allé 8, 41133 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Waste Manag. 2019 Apr 1;88:268-279. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2019.03.050. Epub 2019 Mar 28.
The circular economy is proposed to reduce environmental impact, but as yet, there is limited empirical evidence of this sort from studying real, commercial circular economy business cases. This study investigates the environmental impacts of using second-hand laptops, mediated by a commercial reuse operation, instead of new ones. The method used is life cycle assessment (LCA) and special attention is given to laptops' metal resource use by using several complementary life cycle impact assessment methods. The results show that all activities required to enable reuse of laptops are negligible, despite the reuse company's large geographical scope. Two principal features of reuse reduce environmental impacts. Firstly, use extension reduces all impacts considerably since there are large embedded impacts in components. Secondly, the reuse company steers non-reusable laptops into state-of-the-art recycling. This provides additional impact reductions, especially with regards to toxicity and metal resource use. The results for metal resource use however diverge between LCIA methods in terms of highlighted metals which, in turn, affects the degree of impact reduction. LCIA methods that characterise functionally recycled metals as important, result in larger impact reduction, since these emphasise the merits of steering flows into state-of-the-art recycling. The study thus demonstrates how using second-hand laptops, mediated by a commercial reuse operation, compared to new ones, in practice, reduces different types of environmental impact through synergistic relationships between reuse and recycling. Moreover, it illustrates how the choice of LCIA method can influence interpretations of metal resource use impacts when applying circular economy measures to information and communication technologies (ICT).
循环经济旨在减少环境影响，但迄今为止，从研究真实的商业循环经济案例中，关于这方面的经验证据有限。本研究通过商业再利用业务，调查了使用二手笔记本电脑而不是新笔记本电脑对环境的影响。所使用的方法是生命周期评估（LCA），并特别关注笔记本电脑金属资源的使用，采用了几种互补的生命周期影响评估方法。结果表明，尽管再利用公司的地理范围很大，但所有使笔记本电脑能够再利用的活动都可以忽略不计。再利用的两个主要特点可以减少环境影响。首先，使用扩展会大大减少所有的影响，因为组件中有大量的嵌入式影响。其次，再利用公司将不可再利用的笔记本电脑引导到最先进的回收中。这提供了额外的影响减少，特别是在毒性和金属资源使用方面。然而，金属资源使用的结果在 LCIA 方法之间存在分歧，突出显示的金属在不同的方法中有所不同，这反过来又影响了影响减少的程度。将功能回收的金属视为重要因素的 LCIA 方法会导致更大的影响减少，因为这些方法强调了将流动引导到最先进的回收中的优点。因此，该研究表明，通过商业再利用业务，与新的相比，在实践中使用二手笔记本电脑如何通过再利用和回收之间的协同关系，减少不同类型的环境影响。此外，它说明了在将循环经济措施应用于信息和通信技术（ICT）时，如何选择 LCIA 方法会影响对金属资源使用影响的解释。
