4 th PLATE 2021 Virtual Conference Limerick, Ireland - 26-28 May 2021 - 1 - Reaping What WEEE Sow: The potential for harvesting spare parts for repair and refurbishment Jessika Luth Richter a , Sahra Svensson-Höglund b , Tobias Frolov a , Carl Johan Dalhammar a , Åke Thidell a , Jennifer Dianne Russell b a) Lund University, Lund, Sweden b) Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, USA Keywords: repair; refurbishment; e-waste; spare parts; components Abstract: A Circular Economy (CE) calls for the value of materials and products to be maintained and recovered through narrowing, closing, and slowing loops. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy and not only recycling materials from products, but also capturing value through reuse of components in refurbished and repaired products. In this paper, we examine the practice of “harvesting” spare parts from discarded white goods and consumer electronics in Norway, Sweden and California. Through literature review and interviews, we examine the sources of WEEE and potential spare parts, the use and markets for harvested spare parts, and the harvesting process itself. We identify key conditions, actors, and barriers and discuss how spare part harvesting could be upscaled to support increasing repair and refurbishment activities, which can increase product lifetimes and reduce waste. Introduction A Circular Economy (CE) aims to retain the value of materials and products as long as possible. However, there remain challenges in moving up the waste hierarchy, from waste and recycling to increased repair and reuse of products and their components. Globally, high- income countries like Sweden, Norway and the US demonstrate correlated high consumption of electronic products and white goods (Forti et al., 2020). The Nordic countries are considered to be at the forefront in Europe when it comes to the recycling of waste electrical and electronic products (WEEE) (Yllä-Mella et al., 2014) and California was a pioneer in adopting e-waste legislation in 2003 (Biedenkopf, 2020), but less is known about the practice and potential of repair and refurbishment in these contexts. The End-of-life (EoL) treatment of WEEE may present a potential solution to the lack of available spare parts, which is a significant barrier constraining the upscale of repair and refurbishment (see Svensson- Hoglund et al., 2021). Spare parts (“spares”) used in repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing can be: 1) original, newly manufactured OEM parts; 2) third-party manufactured aftermarket parts (“copy”), and; 3) directly reused or refurbished original spares harvested from products,. Securing high-quality new spares can be a time consuming affair; harvesting is an alternative (Hansen & Revellio, 2020; Thierry et al., 1995). EoL products that cannot be reused may still contain valuable components (Tecchio et al., 2019), especially original parts that may be difficult to source elsewhere (Hansen & Revellio, 2020). Further, increasing prices of spares are a threat to the business case for repairers (Türkeli et al., 2019), which harvesting can potentially address. Harvesting of spares has a long tradition in the automotive industry, however, there is little in academic literature about the current state of this practice with electronics and appliances. Research approach This research seeks to improve understanding of: 1) the source of waste products harvested for spares, 2) how harvested spares are used, and 3) the harvesting process. The focus is on the regulated waste stream (as opposed to unregulated or informal scavenging - this issue is explored, e.g. in Magalini & Stillhart, 2017). In addition, we briefly discuss how spare part harvesting can be upscaled. Data was collected to address the research aims through: 1) a broad literature review, and 2) case studies of practice in Norway and Sweden (“Nordics”), and California (CA) in the