ERICE- Electronics Recycling In A Circular Economy

With the predicted move from electronics ownership to leasing style, many equipment suppliers are searching for technologies to allow easier in-house recycling. ERICE will develop a full commercial, easy-to-dissassembly, sustainable electronics assembly technology suitable for the circular economy, using recycled materials from an initial demonstrator. The project will develop, manufacture and test materials and techniques for low temperature fabrication using a series of special polymer layers and binders which will allow straight forward, end-of-life unzipping of the constituent parts. After disassembly, the materials and components from this demonstrator will be recovered and subsequently reused to fabricate and test a further demonstrator. Building on an earlier successful concept project, the aim is to reuse or recycle over 90% of the materials from the first demonstrator into the second with minimal energy usage. It is antipated that this level of recovery and reuse will represent a world first for the electronics manufacturing industry.Techniques will be developed to allow component assemblies on both sides, significantly increasing the technologies potential markets.