Jonathan Coombes

The Afterlife of Electronic Products

Where do electronic products go when they die? If they are disposed through household waste, landfill sites are the most likely final resting place. Hazardous substances contained within can find their way into groundwater, posing an obvious health threat

Within the EU the Waste and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive will be implemented soon. Essentially, producers will be responsible for the waste that that their own products produce. Consumers will be able to return products at the end of their life without charge. This is a dramatic turning point for industry and ultimately the consumer.

My project looks at the implications for Industrial Design. It proposes a new system for tracking products through their lifecycle. Products will have tags, which help the user put the product into the correct waste stream. The tag can work in different ways on different products, some products could have a GreenButton, providing the user with constant feedback about the environmental footprint of the product.

How will consumers be incentivized to use a system like this? Might they feel short-changed, having paid to own the product outright but obliged to return it to the manufacture at the end of its life? Changes in the pricing system might be needed e.g. a deposit could be included in the full retail price, returned or offered as vouchers when the product is returned at the end of its life. Similar systems already exist for collecting empty coke bottles or supermarket trolleys. But might legislation like WEEE be a tipping point, pushing us from a system based on the outright ownership of products to one where we purchase the services that products provide?

Ethical consumerism is a growing trend, people are willing to pay more to do the right thing. It has become part of our sense of what constitutes value for money. It is already firmly established in food retail and is moving into fashion. Is the electricals sector next?

Details:

Jonathan Coombes

joncoombes@lineone.net

www.jonathancoombes.co.uk