In our R’07 contribution "The challenge of open cycles" we elaborated on the general constraints in achieving a true recycling society using the example of consumer electronics and cars [Hagelüken 2007]. We showed that the lifecycle structure has a major impact. This contribution now focuses on economic and technology challenges to recycle precious and special metals. These "technology metals" ...

Stickies continue to represent the most challenging contaminant to remove from recycled secondary fiber. Current projections suggest that pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) markets will continue to grow rapidly, increasing the concentration of these contaminants in common office-pack wastepaper. PSA’s reformulated to exhibit higher removal efficiencies within standard secondary fiber processing ...

In order to secure valuable materials and to establish better circular economy practice, new legislation to promote recycling of small-sized e-waste including used mobile phones started in April 2013, in Japan. In order to consider appropriate methods to reduce material usage in mobile phone production, an examination of appropriate strategies in handling used mobile phone products is warranted...

The operation of PEM fuel cells (PEMFC) with dead-ended anode (DEA) leads to severe voltage transients due to accumulation of nitrogen, water vapor and liquid water in the anode channels and the gas diffusion layer (GDL). Accumulation of nitrogen causes a large voltage transient with a characteristic profile whereas the amount of water vapor in the anode is limited by the saturation pressure, a...

For a firm, the dual goals – induced by the drive on Extended Producer Responsibility – of meeting environmental regulations and positioning itself as a socially-responsible entity, necessitate the understanding of supplyand demand-side implications as well as product design characteristics. These, in turn, result in a healthy tradeoff between feasible sustainability measures, thus making the i...

The development of sustainable and low cost electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries has attracted considerable attention. In this work, a carbon composite material decorated with in situ generated ZnS nanoparticles has been prepared via a simple pyrolysis of the rubber powder from dumped tires. Upon being used as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries, the carbon composite shows a high...