Disassembly and recycling cost analysis of waste notebook and the efficiency improvement by re-design process Shu-Kai S. Fan a , Chihhao Fan b, * , Jhong-Hong Yang b, c , Kevin Fong-Rey Liu b a Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City 10608, Taiwan b Graduate Institute of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, New Taipei City 24301, Taiwan c Environmental Protection and Industrial Safety, Hygiene Department, Electronics Testing Center, Taoyuan County 33383, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 22 January 2012 Received in revised form 12 August 2012 Accepted 13 August 2012 Available online 29 August 2012 Keywords: Eco-design Notebook Disassembly Disassembly sequence Parts recycle abstract This paper evaluates the recycling rates, costs as well as the disassembly time of a notebook at its end-of- life stage through Prodtect 1.3 calculation using data collected during disassembly processes. The results show that the disassembly and recycle of a notebook at its end-of-life stage may exert positive influence on the environment by introducing the eco-design concept to the product re-design, thus creating more resource-conserving products and enhancing recycle efficiency. Through proper disassembly and disposal processes, a notebook at its end-of-life stage may yield the recycling value of 1.61 EUR. Furthermore, the most revenue of 1.44 EUR is attributed to the recycle of metallic and plastic parts, the major constituents of a notebook. As for the time required for disassembly, the Top Case, Motherboard and LCD (CHI MEI) are the three most time-taking parts in the disassembly process, and their total times required are 133, 67 and 64 s, respectively. Prodtect calculation to assess notebook recycling benefits provides a new set of guidelines for the notebook designer to propose potential modifications of the re- design for reducing the environmental impacts arising from the next-generation products. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Modern technology has advanced human beings into a society with vast growth and economic prosperity, where the use of elec- trical and electronic devices becomes inevitable for daily life. According to the study by Cui and Forssberg (2003), more than 6 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) were generated in 1998 in west Europe, and the amount of WEEE was expected to increase 3e5% per annum. Kang and Schoenung (2005) indicated that more than 54 million personal computers (PCs) were sold in 2003, and nearly 63 million PCs in the U.S. were expected to become obsolete in 2003. In the study by Liu et al. (2009), the amount of electronic waste in urban Beijing area in China was estimated to increase two times in 2010 as compared to that in 2005, and this increase will continue till 2020. Apparently, the significant increase in discarded consumer electronic products will cause enormous environmental problems as no thought has been given to their possible reuse. Before 1990, the WEEE was treated and disposed as general waste. Since the concept of resource conservation has received considerable attention in late 90s, some European governments have passed laws so that manufacturers and importers are being held responsible for their products when discarded by customers. Therefore, manufac- turers have started considering product designs which allow the reuse of components/sub-assemblies and the recycling of raw materials (Bras, 1997; Horvath et al., 1995; Sarkis, 1998; Wapman, 1994). Incorporating environmental consideration into the product design is deemed an immediate way to enhance the recycling process of the WEEE at its end-of-life stage. The basic concept of eco-design is to reduce environmental impacts by taking the product redesign into account throughout the entire life cycle. The eco-design concept has been applied extensively during the last decade. Donnelly et al. (2006) presented a product-based envi- ronmental management system focusing on eco-design to improve the product sustainability throughout the entire product life. Through a five-stage of the applicability framework, Knight and Jenkins (2009) showed how a suite of potential eco-design tools can be identified for application to product development processes. Cerdan et al. (2009) proposed a series of eco-design indicators that can help to reduce the time and resources to choose between alternative eco-design options. The issue that assesses the compliance of a product from eco-design to eco-label was addressed in the study by Houe and Grabot (2009). Yang and Chen (2011) proposed a new approach using case-based reasoning and * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ886 229089899x4656; fax: þ886 229080783. E-mail address: dillon@mail.mcut.edu.tw (C. Fan). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro 0959-6526/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.014 Journal of Cleaner Production 39 (2013) 209e219