🌱 Why is e-waste recycling important?
Globally, “the amount of e-waste is rising five times faster than the amount that is being recycled”. That also means we urgently need innovations and solutions to both reduce the amount of incoming e-waste and to reuse the e-waste that has already been produced. The production of e-waste is not only an environmental and social issue, but it is also a lost economic opportunity. According to the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor, around EUR 84 billion are “lost each year when valuable metals like copper, iron and gold are discarded instead of being reused”.
🌱 What issues arise when recycling e-waste?
E-waste recycling is complex as there “diverse states of damage and [a] variety of device models involved”. In practice, this means that workers typically have to “manually prepare” e-waste for recycling. This involves sorting the waste, dismantling devices “with hammers and pliers”, and removing batteries. Batteries are “a major challenge in e-waste recycling”, as they pose a considerable fire hazard. Additionally, other hazardous materials also “pose significant risks” to workers.
🌱 What role can robotics, AI, and automation play?
Through the use of robots, many tasks now done manually at e-waste recycling facilities can be automated. The use of robotics, for example, allows for the creation of “a human-like hand that can manipulate objects with great precision”. Amongst others, disassembly robots can perform a large number of tasks completely autonomously. This includes “screwing, lifting, cutting, extracting, localizing, repositioning, releasing, moving levers, bending, breaking and cutting wires”. The tricky part in e-waste recycling is that there are so many different types and builds of devices. In essence, “every time there is a change in the product or the process, the hardware and software [of an automized recycling system] need to be restructured”. By using AI to make sense of sensor and camera data, it is however possible to “create a robot that can adapt to many different tasks” and to develop a fully automated system.
🌱 What role does this play for the future?
Overall, systems that use robotics, AI, and/or automation can reduce the costs for e-waste recycling and improve worker safety. The reduced reliance on manual labor can considerably lower operational costs, which currently act as an economic barrier to formal e-waste recycling in many countries. Increasing material recovery rates globally through e-waste recycling is key for a circular economy and the energy transition. On a local level, increased material recovery rates through e-waste recycling can also contribute to more supply chain security and self-determination in countries’ decisions on their material and energy matters.
Read more about the use of AI and robotics here:
- https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/455676-robots-lead-the-charge-in-recycling-electronic-waste
- https://techxplore.com/news/2025-02-robots-automated-disassembly-recycling.html#google_vignette
- https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/robotics-and-ai/articles/10.3389/frobt.2024.1303279/full