Repurpose, not recycle robots
Robots should be repurposed and made with this in mind rather than simply recycled to prevent e-waste, advise scientists.
The robotics industry should be creating robots that can be reprogrammed and repurposed for other tasks once they complete their life span, assert researchers at the University of Bristol and University of West England, UK.
They want to challenge individuals working in the robotics industry and academia to note the effect their early work can have on the long-term use of a robotic system.
With 80% of a robots environmental impact decided during the initial design phases of a product life-cycle, experts argue it is essential that researchers, designers and manufacturers understand the limitations of recycling an electronic product, and instead consider the other options.
Repurposing, compared to reuse, is unique to robots, as systems can be fully reprogrammed and integrated with new hardware, resulting in a robot with a different utility to the original.
Helen McGloin from Bristol’s Faculty of Science and Engineering says, ‘The global e-waste monitor produced by the UN highlights in 2019 alone, 54Mt of e-waste were produced, and this is expected to rise to 75Mt by 2030.’
Yet, robots and robotic systems are not classed as electronic waste, but will probably be included in scope of e-waste in the future and will bring additional scrutiny of the robotics industry and the way it designs and plans end-of-life products.
Currently, many businesses, research centres and universities ‘hibernate’ their robotic electronic waste – where e-waste is stored for a period without being used.
McGloin adds, ‘While recycling may seem like an easy option to tackle electronic waste, it is so often miss-managed that alternatives must be sought.’
The team have also highlighted a variety of challenges to implementing repurposing in the robotics industry such as assessing economic and environmental viability, proving technical capability of repurposing robots, addressing attitudes towards the circular economy through use of incentives and legislation.
They will now investigate further consumer attitudes towards
second-hand robots, industry attitudes towards e-waste, right to repair, repurposing and the circular economy, as well as the processes to repurpose robots and barriers to a circular economy in the robotics industry.
