EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I 9819938171, 9789819938179

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Shinichi Fukushige Hideki Kobayashi Eiji Yamasue Keishiro Hara   Editors

EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I

EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I

Shinichi Fukushige • Hideki Kobayashi • Eiji Yamasue • Keishiro Hara Editors

EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I

Editors Shinichi Fukushige School of Creative Science and Engineering Waseda University Tokyo, Japan

Hideki Kobayashi Graduate School of Engineering Osaka University Suita, Osaka, Osaka, Japan

Eiji Yamasue College of Science and Engineering Ritsumeikan University Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan

Keishiro Hara Graduate School of Engineering Osaka University Suita, Osaka, Japan

ISBN 978-981-99-3817-9 ISBN 978-981-99-3818-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6

(eBook)

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore Paper in this product is recyclable.

Preface

As the scope and depth of environmental issues have expanded over the last decades, the targets of EcoDesign have become increasingly diverse, ranging from individual product and service design to social system design. In any case, the main aim of the design technology is to minimize their resource consumption and environmental impact while providing sufficient functionality to the society. EcoDesign has remained a core concept in the manufacturing industry for constructing sustainable artifact systems, including product service system, product lifecycle system, transportation system, energy system, and production system. The role of EcoDesign will continue to expand in the coming decades as a new vision of industry after COVID19 is sought after in the world. This book collates 64 papers out of 148 papers presented at EcoDesign 2021—the 12th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, which was held online from December 1st to 3rd, 2021. All the 64 papers were peer-reviewed by the EcoDesign 2021 Executive committee. EcoDesign 2021 provided the excellent platform to share the state-of-the-art research and practices in the field of EcoDesign. A total of 278 researchers and practitioners from 28 countries participated in EcoDesign 2021. The book consists of two volumes, i.e., the first volume focuses on “Sustainable Design” and the second volume focuses on “Sustainability Assessment.” Reflecting the expansion of the symposium scope, the book chapters cover broad areas— product and service design, business models and policies, circular production and life cycle management, digital technologies, sustainable manufacturing, user behavior and health, sustainable consumption and production, ecodesign of social infrastructure, sustainability education, sustainability indicators, and energy system design. We believe that the methods, tools, and practices described in the chapters are useful for readers to facilitate value creation for sustainability.

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Last but not least, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to all the contributors, supporters, and participants of EcoDesign 2021. This book cannot be published without the help of the executive committee members who cooperated in the peer review of the papers. Tokyo, Japan Suita, Osaka, Japan Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan Suita, Osaka, Japan

Shinichi Fukushige Hideki Kobayashi Eiji Yamasue Keishiro Hara

Contents

Part I 1

2

3

4

5

Modeling Local Product Development Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration: A Case Study in Nagara, Chiba Prefecture in Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shota Tajima Developing Reusable Packaging for FMCG: Consumers’ Perceptions of Benefits and Risks of Refillable and Returnable Packaging Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xueqing Miao, Lise Magnier, and Ruth Mugge Design, Evaluation, and Acceptance of Advanced Energy-Efficient Houses for Thailand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tomohiro Tasaki, Shotaro Kato, Hironori Souda, Taiji Imaizumi, Aya Yoshida, Panate Manomaivibool, and Pattayaporn Unroj Explore the Framework Construction of Gamification Applied to Basic Design Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Xiao Yang Zhu and Shang-chia Chiou Future Design-Based Policy Making Card Game for High School Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shohei Nakamura, Tsubasa Ogata, Kazuhito Wakamoto, and Tetsusei Kurashiki

Part II 6

Collaborative Design

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17

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45

59

Sustainable Innovation

Frugal Innovation in BOP Communities: Co-Design of a Technical Solution to Support Community Agriculture in Mexico . . . . . . . . . Víctor Darío Cuervo Pinto, Luis Miguel López Santiago, and Dalia Guadalupe De Lucio Hernández

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Exploring Frugal Innovation as an Ecodesign Strategy: A Case Study of a Water Access Solution at the BoP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . López Santiago Luis Miguel, Rohmer Serge, Díaz-Pichardo René, and Reyes Tatiana

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A Methodical Concept for the Development of Sustainable Products Through Radical Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Juliane Balder, Lisa Hagedorn, and Rainer Stark

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Thinking Model for Japanese Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Innovation Explicated by OntoIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Toshiaki Mitsui and Ryuzo Furukawa

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Applying Regenerative Sustainability Principles in Manufacturing . Mélanie Despeisse

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The Potential for Reverse Innovation in Sustainable Development: A Knowledge-Directed Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Harald E. Otto

Part III

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Digital Technologies

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Finding Applications for Secondary Raw Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Mauricio Dwek and Claes Fredriksson

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Digital Product Passports in Circular Economy: Case Battery Passport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Teuvo Uusitalo, Marjaana Karhu, Sami Majaniemi, Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Jyri Hanski, and Saija Vatanen

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Data Platforms as Tools for Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Inka Orko and Rita Lavikka

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Artificial Intelligence for Process Control in Remanufacturing . . . . 203 Chigozie Enyinna Nwankpa, Winifred Ijomah, and Anthony Gachagan

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Machine Recognition of ICs in Recycling Process of Small-Sized Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Zizhen Liu and Nozomu Mishima

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Exploring New Way Media Information of the Product That Promote Sustainable Consumption and Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Edilson Ueda

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Towards Digital Circular Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Sami Majaniemi, Jyri Hanski, Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Teuvo Uusitalo, and Marjaana Karhu

Contents

Part IV

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Product and Process Design

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Circular Furniture Design: A Case Study from Swedish Furniture Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Linnea Ankarberg, Nazlı Terzioğlu, and Erik Sundin

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Current Challenges in the Lifetime Extension of Smartphones . . . . 285 Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Susanna Horn, Jáchym Judl, Jyri Hanski, Marjaana Karhu, and Teuvo Uusitalo

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Dielectric Elastomer Transducer (High-Efficiency Actuator and Power Generation System) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301 S. Chiba, M. Waki, Y. Hirota, N. Nishikawa, T. Yajima, and K. Ohayama

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Sustainable Services in Convenience Stores: A Case Study on Food Loss Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Edilson Ueda

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An Overview of Sustainability Held During 1992 to 2021 in China: An Industrial Design Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 Yujian Wang and Edilson Ueda

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Increased Personal Protective and Medical Equipment Manufacturing to Fight COVID-19: An Egregious Approach for the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Damola Ikeoluwa Akano, Winifred Ijomah, and James Windmill

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Silver Recovery from Spent Photovoltaic Panel Sheets Using Electrical Wire Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 Y. Imaizumi, S. Lim, T. Koita, K. Mochizuki, Y. Takaya, T. Namihira, and C. Tokoro

Part V

Design Methodology for Sustainability

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Procedure Model to Support the Recycling-Oriented Design of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 Filip Vysoudil, Sönke Hansen, Mark Mennenga, Maho Fukuda, Gregor Ohnemüller, Tom Rüther, Dietrich Goers, Jan Koller, Kristian Nikolowski, Bernd Rosemann, Mareike Wolter, Michael Danzer, Frank Döpper, Christoph Herrmann, and Thomas Vietor

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Holistic Ecodesign Framework Developed Through a Case Study in the Automotive Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Kristoffer Blæsbjerg, Jia Jue Johannes Chen, and Daniela Cristina Antelmi Pigosso

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Depth and Detail or Quick and Easy? Benefits and Drawbacks of Two Approaches to Define Sustainability Criteria in Product Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413 Matilda Watz and Sophie I. Hallstedt

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Designing Interventions for Sustainability: A Conceptual Framework for Information Scoping in the Design Research Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 Shilpi Reema Rath, Wanjun Chu, Nazlı Terzioğlu, and Renee Wever

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A Sustainable Product-Service System (PSS) Design for Retail Food Loss and Waste: Research Through Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Tingting Wang, Dongjuan Xiao, Xueqing Miao, Yiting Zhang, Xinxin Lan, and Chenxi Yan

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Environmental and Economical Design Problem of Upgrading and Remanufacturing Option Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461 Jaeho Han, Hiromasa Ijuin, Tetsuo Yamada, Shuho Yamada, and Masato Inoue

Part VI

Energy System Design

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Renewable Energy System in the Off-Grid Communities: The Systems’ Characteristics and Storage Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 Andante Hadi Pandyaswargo and Hiroshi Onoda

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Optimal Cooling Strategy for Energy Management Using Multi-Temperature Acquisition Points in a Protected Cropping Facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 Premaratne Samaranayake, Chelsea Maier, Sachin Chavan, Weiguang Liang, Zhonghua Chen, Yi-Chen Lan, and David Tissue

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Wind Turbine Minimum Power Loss Optimization Using Non-linear Mathematical Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 Kashif Sohail and Hooman Farzaneh

Part I

Collaborative Design

Chapter 1

Modeling Local Product Development Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration: A Case Study in Nagara, Chiba Prefecture in Japan Shota Tajima

1.1

Introduction

Locally oriented design and manufacturing is a critical issue for realizing sustainable development in rural areas. Japanese society has been facing a declining population since 2008, and regional revitalization was recognized as a national issue in 2015. As part of Japan’s regional revitalization policy, the government has set cross-cutting goals that build upon the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals with the aim of achieving sustainable regional revitalization [1]. Ideas for sustainable development in rural areas are needed, including new multidisciplinary collaboration between industry, government, and academia, and these ideas need to be modeled in order to produce innovative locally oriented products such as foods, beverages, and goods. Chiba University has been working on a local development project with the town of Nagara in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. This regional revitalization project is named “Regional Revitalization Promotion Project (COC+)” and has been supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology since 2015. As part of the multidisciplinary collaboration for local development in Nagara, new local product development was started in 2018. This study proposes modeling local product development using design thinking methodology in multidisciplinary collaboration in Nagara as a case study. It also considers how the proposed model can contribute to a sustainable rural society.

S. Tajima (✉) Graduate School of Global and Transdisciplinary Studies, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_1

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Incorporating Design Thinking into Regional Revitalization

In this study, I adopted a design thinking approach as the methodology (Fig. 1.1). Design thinking helps people manage the complex issues facing society today [2] and is becoming more commonly applied in regional revitalization research. I applied design thinking to modeling local product development, which involved observing situations, defining issues, creating ideas, and testing prototypes. Previous studies have incorporated design thinking into regional revitalization. One study incorporated design thinking into project and program management platform theory and tested hypotheses to solve problems with residents for junior and senior high school students [3]. Other studies have reported on the educational effects that a design thinking course for revitalizing a local shopping district had on students [4, 5]. An example COC+ project conducted at a university involved analyzing learners’ consciousness and learning methods in regional branding classes using design thinking, and the results suggested that there may be changes in learner motivation [6]. Among design studies, one reported on a regional revitalization project based on design thinking that aimed to enhance administrative services for foreign residents [7], and a social design case study based on design thinking considered the utilization of waste wood [8]. Against this background, it is apparent that the incorporation of design thinking into regional revitalization is a relatively new idea, and that evidence supporting this approach is limited. Many previous studies have focused on short-term learning effects in education. However, the present study is a long-term verification case study from the perspective of sustainable community development based on regional revitalization. In addition, modeling the specific local product development process can be used for future product development in rural areas. Furthermore, this study targeted a town for which I serve as a regional revitalization advisor, and as such, this study has a strong link with administrative measures.

Fig. 1.1 Design thinking

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1.3 1.3.1

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Local Product Development in Nagara Observing the Situation

Nagara in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, was the target site. The town has a population of 6654, covers an area of 47.11 km2, and is located in the central part of Chiba Prefecture [9] (Fig. 1.2). The primary industry is agriculture, which includes rice, bamboo shoots, figs, and wild yams. The town’s population has been declining annually since 1997 (Fig. 1.3). As a result, Nagara has been facing severe issues such as the aging of farmers, a shortage of successors, and a decline in public transportation. In 2015, Chiba University and the government of Nagara signed a cooperation agreement to participate in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology “Regional Revitalization Promotion Project (COC+).” Since then, they have been working on an auxiliary project called “Continuing Care Retirement Fig. 1.2 Location of Nagara Town

Fig. 1.3 Population transition in Nagara Town

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Community” (CCRC) [10]. With the vision of extending the local population’s healthy life expectancy, Chiba University and the Nagara have been developing migration and settlement programs, including administrative measures and the creation of local guidebooks through government–academia collaboration. At the beginning of this study, I observed the situation in Nagara and found that few businesses produced local products and that no established organization considered regional brands. The meaning of regional brands is broad, and encompasses unique local products, products that can be differentiated from those of competing regions, and the names of products. The Cabinet Office defines regional brands as “an attempt to make consumers aware of differentiation from others and to increase the added value of products and services, and by extension, the region itself” [11]. In Japan, which faces a declining population, regional brands will increase the earning power of the region and promote regional revitalization. Studies on local product development that attempted to create regional brands in collaboration with universities reported on precedent cases, including a research proposal for the production of a unified prefectural brand in collaboration with a product association [12] and the production of assorted souvenir designs in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and manufacturing companies [13]. The purpose of these studies was to unify commercially available products as regional products by incorporating academic knowledge and establishing a comprehensive local brand [14].

1.3.2

Defining Issues

Considering Nagara’s situation, a consortium for new local product development was formed with local companies and students. The purpose was to foster the town’s central policy of a “healthy town,” as part of the CCRC and as a local brand through local product development. In other words, the problem in this study was defined as “improving awareness of the town” and “creating connections through multiple collaborations.” The consortium consisted of Nagara as the seller, students from Chiba University, a drinking water manufacturer whose head office and factory are located in Nagara, a factory that manufactures flavors located in Nagara, a resort facility management company that serves as the core facility of the CCRC, and a university spin-off venture company whose business focuses on regional revitalization (Fig. 1.4). Researchers and students were recruited to participate in this local product development study. Most of students were involved in all aspects of concept development, flavor development, product naming, packaging design, and promotion. Local residents also should have been recruited at the beginning of the study, but instead, they started participated midway through the study.

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Fig. 1.4 Consortium for new local development

1.3.3

Creating Ideas

One approach to creating a regional brand is to derive ideas from local resources and social trends [15]. Our consortium has been expanding the town’s local resources by producing migration guidebooks, facilitating active learning among students, and recruiting younger staff to conduct study sessions on regional revitalization. For example, Nagara has physical resources such as the CCRC, golf courses, athletic facilities, a dam, and human resources, including healthy older people working in agriculture. In addition, the advent of Japan’s super-aging society has resulted in the common societal need to extend the population’s healthy life expectancy, which is the central theme of the CCRC. Exercise, water, and health keywords were considered to be the core of the regional brand. Therefore, we created the concept of a local product, “a beverage after exercise.” In Sera in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, “Running Water” (i.e., drinking water for consumption after running) is an example of collaborative development with young people based on the concept of a beverage after exercising. A robust relay road race team from Sera High School jointly developed this special drink with a local product development organization. Together with the student, I conducted interviews with representatives of Sera High School, Sera Kogen 6th Industrial Network, the Sera Town Industrial Promotion Division, and the Sera Town Tourism Association to co-develop this running water. We found that the students’ free ideas started the Running Water project. The students also incorporated the town’s name into the name of the product. They promoted the image of the product as a local brand by cherishing its development story. Considering this example from Sera, we devised the unique beverage name “Nagara and Guarana” (N&G). Guarana is a plant belonging to the Sapindaceae family and is native to the Amazon River basin in South America. Indigenous tribes have cultivated guarana since ancient times. They have long prized guarana as an “elixir of immortality and longevity” because of its medicinal and stimulant properties [16]. Currently, it is produced mainly in Brazil and is widely used as a raw

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Table 1.1 Prototypes for testing flavors A B C

Names Energy guarana flavor Guarana flavor Clean guarana flavor

Features Energy drink with caffeine

Target Students and drivers

Similar to a commercial product that emphasizes sweetness Focus on exhilaration and freshness

People aged over 40 years who are familiar with guarana beverages People who move their bodies, such as athletes and farmers

Fig. 1.5 Prototype’s package design by Natsumi Akazawa

material for caffeine in drinks. We thought that using guarana would not only help people remember the name of the town, but also that the image of guarana as a stimulant that promotes recovery from fatigue matched the concept of healthy town development. To develop the flavor of N&G, we adopted marketing methods such as 4P analysis and examined three types of flavors (Table 1.1). Multiple tastings were performed by consortium members, focusing on prototype C. Post-exercise tasting sessions were also conducted with the general public. We asked them to choose their favorite flavor at the tasting party and to write down the reason for their choice on a sticky note. We received responses from 210 people and selected the flavor that received the most votes and noted that many of the responses contained words such as “clean” and “refreshing.” The package design of the N&G was inspired by the town’s nationally designated cultural property, namely, the Nagara cave tombs, designed by the student of Chiba University (Fig. 1.5). The Nagara cave tombs are considered to be a historic site and have an unusual form created in the Kodan style, constructed during the Kofun period. The interior of the cave tombs is hermetically preserved, and the walls are

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decorated with murals that resemble birds and a five-storied pagoda. The “beginning” of the specialty beverage was regarded as a metaphor because the beginning of human life is depicted in the murals found at the historic Nagara site. We made five N&G prototypes and presented them to the Nagara local government.

1.3.4

Prototype Testing Before the COVID-19 Outbreak

In February 2020, we manufactured about 2000 cases (60,000 cans) of N&G prototypes (Fig. 1.6). After presenting these N&G prototypes to the Nagara local government, as mentioned in Sect. 1.3.2, defining issues, we evaluated the contribution of the N&G prototypes to “improving awareness of the town” and “creating connections between multiple collaborations.” In addition, we tried to evaluate the taste and reputation of the N&G prototypes before launching full-scale sales from the following year onward. To evaluate social awareness of the town, we measured Nagara’s exposure in the media. To assess the creation of multidisciplinary collaborations, we tallied the number of residents who participated in the promotion of the N&G prototype. We also conducted a questionnaire by internet to evaluate the taste and reputation of the N&G prototypes. When we gave the N&G prototypes, we also distributed a small card that described message of the product as well as a two-dimensional bar code for questionnaire. We designed a questionnaire as easy as possible in order to increase the response rate (Table 1.2). Initially, we planned to have students actively promote the N&G prototypes. The press release for the N&G prototypes led to opportunities to publicize the product in

Fig. 1.6 N&G prototype with an original case

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Table 1.2 Detail of questionnaire Questionnaire How was taste? Would you like to buy for 140 yen? Would you like to visit Nagara? Gender Ages Living area Impressions about taste and design

Answer Good/Bad Yes/No Yes/No Man/Woman/Other 10s–over 70s Nagara/Chiba/Tokyo/Other Free comment

Table 1.3 Details of online events Period 2020/ 5-6 2020/ 7 2020/ 9 2020/ 9-10

Events Town revitalization workshop “School of Nagara” connected by N&G prototypes Launch of “Meeting to energize N&G “Guarana Trip” for residents Promoting the SNS event “Agricultural strength training” outside Nagara

Objectives Devise how to distribute N&G prototypes so that people will think about the future of Nagara Recruiting residents and planning the distribution of 10,000 N&G prototypes outside Nagara Facilitating awareness of N&G prototypes among residents Improving the internal branding among residents by creating videos

various newspapers and at student radio appearances. Thereafter, we planned to distribute the N&G prototypes at emigration events. However, due to the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we lost the opportunity to promote social awareness of Nagara and we needed to reconsider the testing of the N&G prototypes.

1.3.5

Prototype Testing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We planned online events with residents to consider the use of the N&G prototypes in the public relations activities of Nagara. We held a total of four of these online events for testing N&G prototypes during the COVID-19 pandemic (Table 1.3). The first online event was called “School of Nagara,” which was held within 5 days of its conception. The purpose of the event was to devise how to distribute the N&G prototypes to people by backcasting to stimulate thinking about Nagara’s future. In addition to the students, three residents aged under 25 years participated in the event. Together, they planned an online quiz rally called “Guarana Trip” and a social network event called “Agricultural strength training.” To assess the success of these events, we held another event with the students that sought to establish a community development group with the residents. First, a

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“Guarana Trip” was held for people living in Nagara. The students and residents acted as moderators, projecting photographs of the town onto slides and conducting quizzes about the scenes depicted in those photographs. They distributed flyers at the Nagara town hall and elementary and junior high schools within the town. Eight residents, including children from inside and outside the town, participated in the event. The community development group conducted a quiz about five featured spots in Nagara that were photographed and video-recorded in advance. The final online campaign event called “Agricultural strength training” was held through social networking services. We selected farming work as the main exercise because it seemed to be an effective strength training activity. When people retweeted farming work videos that we had created, they were placed in the running to win N&G prototypes. We created six videos that received over 4700 views in total. In addition, our efforts were reported in newspapers and covered by television networks, which promoted the town. We distributed N&G prototypes within and outside Nagara through the abovementioned activities and aggregated the results of the activities while continuing to promote the town’s name and facilitating connections between residents. In total, 1161 people in their teens to 70s evaluated the price and taste of the N&G prototypes through the questionnaire. The results of this survey revealed that we did not convey the message of “souvenirs from Chiba prefecture,” nor did we convey the characteristics of product, transparency, and the cleanliness of the beverage to consumers. Therefore, we developed a new 6-pack souvenir design and placed a map of Chiba Prefecture on the package so that the product’s information would be more clearly conveyed. After the design thinking procedure, N&G prototype was reported in 5 newspapers, by 3 radio stations (including student appearances), and by 3 television networks during the prototype testing phase. In total, 6 entities were involved in the development of the N&G prototypes, and the 12 residents participated in the project as total. The residents include ones born in Nagara and working in urban areas. We completed the final N&G design and manufactured it for sales distribution in June 2021. We plan to sell them within Nagara and at souvenir shops and train stations within the prefecture. We hope to continue this project by assessing whether N&G is a product that contributes to raising awareness of the town and to connecting the people of the town. The purpose will be to produce better locally oriented products in the future.

1.4

Modeling Local Product Development

In this study we used design thinking, defining the problems of “improving awareness of the town” and “creating connections between multiple collaborations” for a local government from the perspective of regional branding. Then, by local product development through multidisciplinary collaboration, we worked on solving the problems. We hope to use this study as an example model of local product

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Fig. 1.7 Modeling of local product development through multidisciplinary collaboration

development through multidisciplinary collaboration based on design thinking (Fig. 1.7). The four steps in this process are as follows. 1. Observe the situation of the rural area: We should observe the town’s situation objectively based on vital statistics and administrative measures. 2. Define the local issue(s): It is crucial to identify the main issues that are causing problems in the region. For example, the issues in this study were population decline and the presence or absence of local products. However, these issues arose from the lack of public relations activities and lack of collaboration in local product development. The problem was not limited to one issue. Therefore, by executing this project, I found that there may be multiple problems in a defining phase. Also, in design thinking, setting a target is essential to starting product development. However, local product development for a local government may not necessarily target the product’s end-users. For example, in this project, the following could be targets: “people who do not know the town” and “people and companies who have no connection.” 3. Idea creation: We need to conduct fieldwork and interviews and refer to case studies in order to create ideas. It is crucial to verify the ideas by comparing them with the observed situation. We should create a space for multidisciplinary

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collaboration for idea creation, which this project tried as an experimentation. The ideas of students and younger generations may prove helpful. 4. Prototype testing: It is important to test the quality of the product. However, we also need to think about and test the product’s ability to solve the main problems in the region that we previously defined. A presentation should be delivered to the local government and understanding should be promoted among resident representatives. In addition, disseminating information through press releases is highly effective. We should create opportunities so that residents and stakeholders can actively participate in producing the product. For example, there is room for people who cannot participate in the idea-creation phase. It is possible to evaluate the quality of a product by conducting a field test and disseminating information through social networking services.

1.5

Discussion

Here, I summarize the results of this study obtained by modeling local product development that introduced design thinking and the issues that arose. First, collaborations between people who have not previously interacted were created in this study. Students and residents collaborated with a common purpose. They proceeded with the project by searching for activities that they could perform together. After the event, various questionnaire responses were provided, including “I was able to work with young people and get in touch with the consciousness and opinions of young people” and “I felt the power and enthusiasm of young people.” Connecting local people as well as local companies could lead to sustainable production and consumption within the region and revitalize stagnant regional circulation. Second, university students were given the opportunity to become aware of local issues. As previous studies have shown, design thinking contributes to improved learner motivation. In addition, this study revealed a creative approach in which the younger generation addresses local issues. In the questionnaire, 71.4% of the students responded with “I agree” to the question “Did participation in this project allow you to think about regional revitalization?” Responses such as the following were provided: “I was aware of the residents’ problems,” “I felt the need to pursue ease of use in the process of matching the voices of the townspeople with what to do for the future of the town.” Some of those involved voiced thoughts such as “I felt that the project’s success was the movement of the local people” and “The accumulation of small activities can change the consciousness of the townspeople, and from there, the possibilities of regional revitalization will expand.” Third, the residents participated in product production from a new perspective. The addition of students led to the creation of new ideas through free discussion during the prototype testing phase. The residents and companies that participated in this project had no connection with each other at the time of the study, and we hope

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that this connection will lead to new local product development in the future. Because this was a long-term study, not all the students and residents participated from the beginning. In future studies, we hope to recruit many participants from the beginning, before conducting the project. This study challenged the modeling of new product development using a design thinking approach through industry–government–academia collaboration centered on university students. By modeling the process, it was possible to use the product as a reference for developing unique products in other rural areas and for contributing to sustainable community development. Acknowledgements This study was the result of a contract research project commissioned by the government of Nagara. We express our sincere gratitude to Nagara government officials and the students of Chiba University who were involved in the project as well as the companies and residents of Nagara.

References 1. The Cabinet Office (2021) About town/people/work creation basic policy 2021. https://www. chisou.go.jp/sousei/info/pdf/r03-6-18-kihonhousin2021gaiyou.pdf. Accessed 21 Jun 2021 2. Dorst K (2011) The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. Des Stud 32(6):521–532 3. Ohwada J, Kazami S (2020) Community value co-creation platform and local revitalization human resource development model by cause related population. Proc Int Assoc Project Prog Manag:239–253 4. Sakai Y, Takimoto K, Maeda D, Okazaki Y, Tanaka Y, Takechi S (2016) Activities for regional revitalization based on the design thinking and marketing technique. J JSEE 64:28–29 5. Takechi S, Tanaka Y, Takeuchi S, Jingu H (2017) Activities of teaching by students and problem based active learning for revitalization of regional retailors. J JSEE 65(6):113–117 6. Abe K, Ohga T, Iwamoto M, Wada T, Okano R, Kajiwara T, Ishikawa Y (2018) Flow and problems of industry-academia-government collaborative education aimed at creating joint research: design thinking and learner awareness. Depart Bull Paper Off Teach Learn/Center for General Education, Oita University 10:17–22 7. Matsushita O, Fujii K, Brent W, Stephanie R (2016) Efforts to enhance the provision of administrative services for foreign residents. Bull JSSD 63:121 8. Yoshida T, Nagai Y, Nakajima T (2014) Case study on the design of wood-recycling system design of architecture: case study of social design using design thinking. Bull JSSD 61:154 9. Nagara Town (2021) Population. https://www.town.nagara.chiba.jp/soshiki/3/64.html. Accessed 21 Jun 2021 10. Tajima S (2018) Efforts that take advantage of the characteristics of the university: universitylinked CCRC in Nagara. Reg Dev 625:29–32 11. The Cabinet Office (2017) Economic analysis of regional brands. https://www5.cao.go.jp/j-j/cr/ cr17/pdf/chr17_2-2.pdf. Accessed 21 Jun 2021 12. Suzuki Y, Ono K, Watanabe M (2015) A design proposal of integrated local souvenir brandusing Chiba Prefecture as an example. Bull JSSD 62:255 13. Nishida M, Saito M (2008) A local article development project by depends on industry, government, and academic cooperation. Bull JSSD 55:325–327

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14. Okoso M (2013) Tourism town development by regional platform: introduction of marketing and management of promotion system. Gakugei Shuppansha 15. Wada M, Sugano S, Tokuyama M, Nagao M, Wakabayashi H (2009) Regional brand management. Yuhikaku 16. FFI Journal Editorial Committee (2013) FFI report technical reports guarana. Food Food Addit Res J 208(8):670–674

Chapter 2

Developing Reusable Packaging for FMCG: Consumers’ Perceptions of Benefits and Risks of Refillable and Returnable Packaging Systems Xueqing Miao, Lise Magnier, and Ruth Mugge

2.1

Introduction

In Europe, plastic production has reached 58 million tonnes each year and 40% of plastic was used for (single-use) packaging. Only 40% of the plastic packaging was recycled in 2018, and thus most of the packaging waste is either incinerated or ends up in landfills [1]. As a consequence, the environmental impact of plastic packaging has received much societal attention in the past decades. To counteract this environmental issue, some initiatives have been developed. For instance, the New Plastics Economy led by Ellen MacArthur Foundation has set out a vision for a global plastics system in which plastics never become waste—a circular economy for plastics. In 2018, 11 leading brands, retailers and packaging companies committed themselves to the goals of the circular economy and work towards 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025 [2]. According to the zero waste hierarchy for the circular economy, reuse is more effective than recycling in waste reduction and more value is retained. Reusable packaging can be defined as packaging or packaging components that have been designed to accomplish a minimum number of trips or rotations in a system for reuse [3]. In other words, the packaging is used multiple times by either the same or different users. Four different types of reusable packaging systems are distinguished: refillable by bulk dispenser, refillable parent packaging, returnable packaging and transit packaging [4]. Refillable by bulk dispenser allows consumers to refill their own packaging or the brand’s packaging in-store or at a mobile truck. Refillable parent packaging encourages consumers to buy concentrated refills and dilute these refills in water in the parent packaging. Returnable packaging is returned by X. Miao (✉) · L. Magnier · R. Mugge Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_2

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consumers when it is empty, cleaned and refilled for future use by suppliers. A deposit system is always involved [5]. Transit packaging is used in multiple cycles to transport goods in both B2B and B2C markets. In this research, we selected refillable by bulk dispenser and returnable packaging as our main focus areas. These two types of reusable packaging systems are interesting to investigate because the market interest for these packaging systems is growing in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry [6]. Some recent examples are the reusable packaging systems of MIWA (https://www.miwa.eu/) and Loop (https://loopstore.com/). Furthermore, these types of reusable packaging systems require a novel and more demanding consumer interaction with an in-store infrastructure. Even though interest in reusable packaging systems is growing, reusable packaging systems will only be successful if consumers are willing to adopt them in their daily shopping. While these systems bring several benefits, some risks could hinder their adoption. To date, the effects of different reusable packaging types on consumers’ perceptions have not received much research attention. Our research contributes to the literature by investigating consumers’ attitudinal and behavioural responses towards two different reusable packaging systems (refillable packaging system and returnable packaging system) and compares these with their responses to disposable packaging. Understanding the perceived benefits and risks is useful for companies and designers developing new reusable packaging systems to further design their systems in a way that is attractive to a majority of consumers. Furthermore, policymakers can use these insights to facilitate consumers’ choice for more sustainable packaging by increasing proper benefits and reducing risks.

2.2

Theoretical Background and Hypotheses

The theoretical framework of the current study is based on the widely used consumer decision-making model (EKB model). It divides the decision-making process into five steps: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-purchase behaviour [7]. This study focuses on consumers’ evaluation of different packaging alternatives. In the evaluation phase, consumers engage in a subjective, comparative assessment of the risks and benefits provided by different alternatives [8]. Consumers balance these risks and benefits before arriving at a final purchase decision on the product alternative suitable to satisfy their needs. Our study draws upon the theory of perceived risk [9] and perceived benefits to investigate the extent to which reusable packaging systems (i.e. refillable and returnable packaging) differ from conventional disposable packaging in terms of consumers’ perceived benefits and risks and purchase intention.

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Perceived Benefits Related to the Adoption of Reusable Packaging Systems

With the growing awareness of environmental protection, consumers are changing their attitudes, behaviour and approach towards different products and consumption in general [10]. Past research has demonstrated that circular products and packaging that are designed to minimize material and energy usage, as well as solid waste, have a positive effect on consumers’ perceived environmental benefits [8, 11–13]. It is estimated that reusable packaging systems (both refillable and returnable) could replace at least 20% of disposable plastic packaging and thereby significantly reduce waste [2]. It is also recognized as a more efficient option to retain the functionality of the material and packaging and achieve potentially large reductions in material use and environmental impacts [4]. Correspondingly, we expect that: H1a: The environmental benefits of reusable packaging systems (both refillable and returnable) will be perceived higher than the environmental benefits of disposable packaging. The environmental benefits of a product can also bring additional benefits for the consumer [14]. Previous research demonstrated that sustainable products can evoke a positive anticipated conscience, which is defined as consumers’ expectations on how a product makes him/her feel in an ethical sense [12, 15]. Consumers often perceive acting sustainably as a moral choice. If acting more sustainably is an important personal goal, reusable packaging can make them feel good [16]. Consequently, we hypothesize that: H1b: People will feel more anticipated conscience for reusable packaging systems than that for disposable packaging. Besides making consumers ethically feel good due to their environmental benefits, reusable packaging systems have the potential to provide enjoyment to consumers through the use of novel and distinctive in-store infrastructure. Enjoyment refers to the fun and excitement gained by consumers in trying new experiences [17]. Consumers assess products and services, not just in terms of functional performance, but also in terms of the enjoyment or pleasure obtained from using the product [18]. This hedonic shopping motivation may predict consumers’ green purchase behaviour [19]. Therefore, we assume that: H1c: People get more enjoyment from using reusable packaging systems than that from disposable packaging.

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Perceived Risks Related to the Adoption of Reusable Packaging Systems

According to the EKB decision-making model, consumers may also perceive risks related to the purchase of reusable packaging that may hinder their adoption. Perceived risk is a multidimensional concept [20]. The investigation of perceived risk is one of the key research topics in the consumer behaviour domain [20]. A reusable packaging system is regarded as a product-service system; instead of simply selling a product, it also offers consumers a service. In both refillable packaging systems and returnable packaging systems, consumers are required to interact with an in-store infrastructure to obtain the product. Thus, the system performance is essential for consumers to adopt this innovative solution. Performance risk is related to whether a product or service can perform correctly as expected and fulfil consumers’ needs, as well as deliver desired benefits [21]. There is a significant relationship between operational performance and product complexity [22]. This indicates that if consumers perceive high performance and complexity risks in reusable packaging systems, they may decline to use them. In addition, using the new system may be perceived as requiring extra effort from consumers, who may be reluctant to do so [23]. As consumers are unfamiliar with the technology involved in reusable packaging systems, such as packaging identification and tracking [24], they may perceive the system as complex to operate and doubt whether it will perform as well as the solutions that they are familiar with. Furthermore, new systems will require extra interactions from consumers (e.g. scan the label, operate the digital interfaces and the bulk dispenser, use the application), which may be perceived as enhancing complexity. Therefore, we assume that: H2a: The reusable packaging systems (refillable and returnable) will be perceived to have higher performance risks in comparison to disposable packaging. H2b: The reusable packaging systems (refillable and returnable) will be perceived as more complex to use in comparison to disposable packaging. Another type of risk that may be especially important for reusable packaging systems is contamination risk. The repeated usage of the packaging in a reusable packaging system may result in flaws and stains on the reusable containers. Such signs of prior usage may increase consumers’ concern for hygiene or safety since these contamination cues signal that the products have been used and touched by others [25, 26]. Unlike refillable packaging which is reused by the same person, returnable packaging involves sequential reuse, in which the packaging is owned sequentially by multiple consumers who are provided with temporary access throughout the packaging lifetime [6]. Multiple contact sources will increase the level of contamination experienced by consumers [25]. Accordingly, we hypothesize that: H2c: The returnable packaging will be perceived as having a higher contamination risk than the refillable packaging and disposable packaging.

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Developing Reusable Packaging for FMCG: Consumers’ Perceptions of. . .

2.3 2.3.1

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Method Design, Procedure and Measurements

An experimental study using a 3 (types of packaging: disposable vs. refillable vs. returnable) × 2 (product categories: shampoo vs. ketchup) between-subjects design was conducted. Each participant was randomly presented with one of the six conditions explained in an animation, and subsequently, asked to answer questions about the packaging shown in the animation in an online questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of four sections. First, participants were presented with a short animation of about 90 s explaining the packaging (system). Second, after watching the animation, participants rated a series of multi-item 7-point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) and 7-point semantic differential scales to assess their evaluation of the presented packaging. Specifically, we asked our participants to evaluate the following three perceived benefits: environmental benefits [13], anticipated conscience [27], and enjoyment [18]. We also asked them to rate three perceived risks including performance risk [21], contamination [25] and complexity [28]. Furthermore, we asked them to fill in their purchase intention [29]. Third, environmental concern [30] and involvement [31] were included to take into account individual differences that could potentially affect the dependent variables in our analysis. All measurement scales are included in Appendix 2. Finally, demographic information (age, gender and education level) was collected in the last section of the questionnaire.

2.3.2

Sample

The participants were recruited from a Dutch consumer panel. The online questionnaire was sent to 810 individuals and 250 valid responses were received (53.2% male; age range: 21–91 years, M = 59 years). The response rate was 30.9%.

2.3.3

Stimuli and Scenarios

Shampoo and ketchup were chosen as the two stimuli products in this experiment. These product categories are relevant because food and personal care goods are two of the main categories for which reusable packaging is applied in the current FMCG sector [6]. Furthermore, the consumption of both shampoo and ketchup is relatively high in Dutch households and thus purchasing these categories would be a familiar setting for our participants. Both shampoo and ketchup are thick liquid products that are often packaged in similar plastic packaging in the market and participants utilize

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both of them by squeezing. These similarities make shampoo and ketchup comparable. The packages showcased in the animations were designed by the researcher based on the design characteristics of existing ketchup and shampoo packaging (Appendix 1). In all scenarios, a packaging design without a clear brand indication was created to prevent potential biases as a result of the brand impression or prior experiences [32, 33]. Both shampoo and ketchup packaging had the same shape, size and material, but differed in terms of liquid colour and label as a result of category differences. The same two packaging designs were used in three packaging types (i.e. disposable packaging, refillable packaging system and returnable packaging system), respectively. The solutions presented in animations illustrated the different roles of three types of packaging in a specific condition. Each animation started with a situation where a character ran out of either shampoo or ketchup and needed to buy a new bottle at the supermarket. One of the three types of packaging solutions was then presented. In the disposable packaging scenarios, the character bought a product sold in disposable packaging, used it at home and disposed of the empty packaging in the PMD container. In the refillable packaging scenarios, the character chose empty plastic packaging and filled it with shampoo/ketchup from the bulk dispenser in the supermarket. Besides paying for the product, the character also paid a small amount for the refillable packaging. When the packaging was empty, the character washed it and refilled it again at the supermarket. In the returnable packaging scenarios, the character chose a pre-filled plastic packaging of shampoo/ketchup and paid for it with a small deposit for the packaging. When the packaging was empty, the character rinsed it, returned it at the supermarket and received the deposit refund. After a professional cleaning, the packaging was refilled and sold again.

2.4 2.4.1

Results Evaluation of the Measurements

The reliabilities of all the scales were adequate with Cronbach’s alpha and Spearman–Brown coefficient above 0.70. All measurement scales used in the questionnaire are summarized in Appendix 2.

2.4.2

Different Consumers’ Responses Between Types of Packaging and Product Categories

A series of analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) (or Kruskal–Wallis tests) were performed with types of packaging and product categories as independent variables,

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and the different perceived benefits, perceived risks and purchase intention as dependent variables. We also entered involvement and environmental concerns [30] as covariates because they may influence consumers’ responses to sustainable products. Table 2.1 shows all the results. In this research, we did not find any main effect for product category, suggesting that no significant differences were found between shampoo and ketchup. We did find significant main effects for the types of packaging, which we will elaborate on below. Finally, no interaction effects between product category and the types of packaging were found ( p > 0.10). 2.4.2.1

Differences in the Evaluation of Perceived Benefits

We conducted ANCOVAs with the three perceived benefits as the dependent variables. However, for ‘environmental benefits’, the equality of variances could not be assumed ( p < 0.05) and we therefore ran a Kruskal–Wallis test instead. The results showed there was a significant difference among the three types of packaging for the perceived environmental benefits (H(2) = 93.869, p < 0.001). Specifically, both refillable packaging (Mrefillable = 6.08, p < 0.001) and returnable packaging (Mreturnable = 5.98, p < 0.001) were perceived as having greater environmental benefits than the disposable packaging (Mdisposable = 3.83), which supported H1a. No significant difference was found between refillable packaging systems and returnable packaging systems ( p > 0.10). For anticipated conscience, both the covariates involvement ( p < 0.01) and environmental concern ( p < 0.05) were significant. A significant difference was found among types of packaging in terms of anticipated conscience (F(2,245) = 44.331, p < 0.001). Consumers experienced more anticipated conscience for both refillable (Mrefillable = 5.69, p < 0.001) and returnable packaging systems (Mreturnable = 5.64, p < 0.001) than for the disposable packaging (Mdisposable = 4.13), which supported H1b. No significant difference was found between refillable and returnable packaging systems ( p > 0.10). Both involvement ( p < 0.001) and environmental concern ( p = 0.01) were significant covariates for the ANCOVA with the dependent variable perceived enjoyment. Consumers significantly obtained more enjoyment from both the refillable (Mrefillable = 4.69, p < 0.05) and returnable packaging systems (Mreturnable = 4.84, p < 0.001) than from the disposable packaging (Mdisposable = 4.03) (F(2,245) = 9.177, p < 0.001), which supported H1c. No significant difference was found between refillable packaging systems and returnable packaging systems ( p > 0.10). 2.4.2.2

Differences in the Evaluation of Perceived Risks

Because Levene’s tests for homogeneity of variances were significant for all perceived risks, we ran three Kruskal–Wallis tests.

4.03 (1.34)

2.11 (1.08) 2.35 (1.16) 1.47 (0.72) 4.35 (1.55)

Enjoyment

Contamination risk Performance risk Complexity Purchase intention

2.50 (1.44) 2.51 (1.38) 2.07 (1.06) 5.16 (173)

4.69 (1.56)

2. Refillable 6.08 (1.07) 5.69 (1.20)

1.80 (0.90) 2.17 (1.00) 1.80 (0.95) 5.17 (1.65)

4.84 (1.30)

3. Returnable 5.98 (0.96) 5.64 (1.14) 2 > 1**, 3 > 1*** 1 > 3*, 2 > 3***

F(2,245) = 9.177*** H(2) = 9.625*** H(2) = 1.469 H(2) = 24.241*** F(2,245) = 7.618***

2 > 1***, 3 > 1***, 2 > 3** 2 > 1***, 3 > 1***

Pairwise comparison 2 > 1***, 3 > 1*** 2 > 1***, 3 > 1***

Statistics H(2) = 93.869*** F(2,245) = 44.331***

Inv: F = 5.338** EC: F = 6.900***

Inv: F = 10.501*** EC: F = 4.917** Inv: F = 13.649*** EC: F = 6.693**

Covariates

Note: The F statistics correspond to the results of the ANCOVAs The H statistics correspond to the results of Kruskal-Wallis tests when the assumptions for parametric tests were violated (Levene tests are significant). Inv involvement in the product categories, EC environmental concern * 0.05). 2.4.2.3

Purchase Intention of Three Types of Packaging

In addition to perceived benefits and risks, we also ran an ANCOVA with types of packaging and the product category as the independent variables, and purchase intention as the dependent variable. Both involvement ( p < 0.05) and environmental concern ( p = 0.01) were significant covariates. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the three types of packaging in terms of purchase intention (F(2,245) = 7.618, p < 0.001). Both refillable (Mrefillable = 5.16, p < 0.01) and returnable packaging systems (Mreturnable = 5.17, p < 0.01) triggered significantly higher purchase intentions than disposable packaging (Mdisposable = 4.35). No significant difference was found between refillable packaging systems and returnable packaging systems ( p > 0.10). This indicated that both reusable packaging systems are perceived as attractive solutions for consumers to replace single-use plastic packaging.

2.5

Discussion

This paper contributes to the literature on reusable packaging by showing that consumers’ perceptions of reusable packaging systems are overall positive and consumers recognize various benefits. Both refillable and returnable packaging thus provide a promising solution to tackle the negative effects of common (plastic) packaging and thereby can contribute to the circular economy. However, our results also showed that the perceived complexity was higher for reusable packaging systems than for disposable packaging. Future designers should thus focus on the simplification of reusing in all aspects. The reusable packaging

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should be easily differentiated from the original pack. And the reusing process should be intuitive and inclusive with clear communication [34]. More information could be provided to guide on how to use the system easily and remind consumers to reuse the packaging. Moreover, we found refillable packaging systems were perceived as more complex to use than returnable packaging systems. One possible reason for this finding could be that, in the Netherlands, bottle recycling systems are common in supermarkets. Consumers are therefore already used to paying a deposit for their bottles and may have more confidence in their ability to interact with returnable packaging systems. This indicates people are more willing to engage with systems that they are already familiar with [35]. It also suggests that a familiar design may improve consumers’ acceptance and adoption of new reusable packaging systems. Our results also showed that contamination was higher for refillable packaging systems compared to returnable packaging systems, which contradicts our initial expectations. A possible explanation for this finding may be that while using the system in the supermarket, there may be a risk of spilling the product during the refilling process, resulting in an unclean and contaminated bulk dispenser. Besides, consumers might be more convinced by the professional cleaning system provided by the companies for the returnable packaging than their cleaning practice for the refillable packaging at home. More research should explore where exactly these risks emerge in the system to design new refillable packaging systems with fewer contamination risks and are easy to clean. Although our study provides valuable implications for future designers and researchers, some limitations should be taken into consideration in future research. First, the participants in this study are only Dutch people, who generally have high environmental awareness and concern [12]. This may positively affect the perceived environmental benefits and anticipated conscience towards different packaging options [12]. Future research could replicate this study into different cultures and contexts. Second, we used hypothetical scenarios and tested perceptions through watching animations and filling in online questionnaires. As a result, we were able to test consumers’ first impressions but not actual behaviours with reusable packaging systems. Considering that purchasing FMCG is mostly habitual and low-involvement, consumers may tend to make a choice by minimizing cognitive effort, rather than make an optimal choice [36]. Changing this habitual behaviour may require a lot of communication to inform consumers about the benefits offered by the new option. It is also essential to learn from the (failed or successful) existing reusable packaging systems, and the role of communication strategies [4]. Furthermore, the online study may lead people to give socially desirable answers and report a higher purchase intention towards reusable packaging systems in the survey than they really have in reality. It would be interesting for future research to study consumer responses when interacting with an actual system rather than watching animations to reduce the likelihood of socially desirable responses. Third, we used plastic packaging in our study, but future research could also investigate how consumers perceive reusable packaging systems that replace other

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types of packaging that may be perceived as less detrimental for the environment (e.g. carton boxes, glass jars) [37]. Fourth, although we did not find significant differences between shampoo and ketchup, future research could replicate the study for other product categories. For example, comparing responses about products that are used daily to products that are used less frequently could represent an interesting avenue for future research. Finally, future research could investigate the effects of specific design interventions in the systems that may increase their adoption. For example, the system may provide more detailed feedback on the environmental impact of reusing packaging in order to further improve consumers’ repeated purchase behaviours which are critical for actually realising the environmental benefits of reuse in the circular economy. Acknowledgement This research was funded by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

Appendix 1:Stimuli and Six Conditions Used in Questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Measurement Scales Environment benefits [13] Unsing this shampoo/ketchup 1. Is bad for the environment/is good for the environment 2. Accelerates the deterioration of the environment/slows the deterioration of the environment 3. Increase pollution/reduces pollution Anticipated conscience [26] (Strongly disagree/strongly agree) 1. It would give me a good conscience to buy shampoo/ketchup in this packaging 2. I would feel good about buying shampoo/ketchup in this packaging Contamination risk [24] (Strongly disagree/strongly agree) 1. I believe this shampoo/ketchup packaging is very unsanitary 2. I think this shampoo/ketchup packaging is contaminated 3. In my opinion, this shampoo/ketchup is dirty Performance risk [20] (Strongly disagree/strongly agree) 1. There is a chance that there would be something wrong with this shampoo/ ketchup packaging 2. There is a chance that I would suffer some loss because this shampoo/ketchup packaging would not perform well 3. This shampoo/ketchup packaging is risky in terms of how it would perform Complexity risk [27] (Not much at all/Very much) (Not many at all/A lot) 1. How much instruction do you think you need in learning how to use this packaging? 2. How much knowledge is needed to use this packaging? 3. How much help is needed in taking this packaging into use? 4. How much effort do you think it costs to learn how to use this packaging? 5. How many people do you think will find use of this packaging complicated? Enjoyment [18] (Strongly disagree/strongly agree) 1. This shampoo/ketchup packaging is the one that I would enjoy 2. This shampoo/ketchup packaging would make me want to use it 3. This shampoo/ketchup packaging is the one that I would feel relaxed about using 4. This shampoo/ketchup packaging would make me feel good 5. This shampoo/ketchup packaging would give me pleasure Purchase intention [28] 1. Given the information above, I am likely to buy shampoo/ketchup in this packaging 2. Given the information above, I am willing to buy shampoo/ketchup in this packaging Environmental concern [29] 1. I make a special effort to buy products that are made from recycled materials 2. I have switched products for ecological reasons 3. When I have a choice between two equal products, I purchase the one less harmful to other people and the environment 4. I have avoided buying a product because it had potentially harmful environmental effects Involvement [30] 1. I am particularly interested in shampoo/ketchup 2. Overall, I am quite involved when I am purchasing shampoo/ketchup for my personal use

(α = 0.95)

(α=0.95)

(α = 0.90)

(α = 0.89)

(α = 0.90)

(α = 0.95)

(α = 0.97)

(α = 0.81)

(α = 0.71)

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References 1. Plastics—the Facts (2020) Plastics Europe. https://www.plasticseurope.org/en/resources/ publications/4312-plastics-facts-2020. Accessed 24 Jun 2021 2. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017) The new plastics economy: catalysing action. Isle of wight, UK. https://www.newplasticseconomy.org/assets/doc/New-Plastics-Economy_CatalysingAction_13-1-17.pdf. Accessed 24 Jun 2021 3. International Organization for Standardization. ISO 18603 (2013) Packaging and the environment—reuse. https://shopbsigroupcom/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030240157. Accessed 24 Jun 2021 4. Coelho P, Corona B, ten Klooster R, Worrell E (2020) Sustainability of reusable packaging– current situation and trends. Resour Conserv Recycl: X 6:100037 5. Lofthouse V, Bhamra T, Trimingham R (2009) Investigating customer perceptions of refillable packaging and assessing business drivers and barriers to their use. Packag Technol Sci 22(6): 335–348 6. Muranko Ż, Tassell C, Zeeuw van der Laan A, Aurisicchio M (2021) Characterisation and environmental value proposition of reuse models for fast-moving consumer goods: reusable packaging and products. Sustainability 13(5):2609 7. Engel JF, Kollat DT, Blackwell RD (1968) Consumer behavior. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, New York 8. Mugge R, Jockin B, Bocken N (2017) How to sell refurbished smartphones? An investigation of different customer groups and appropriate incentives. J Clean Prod 147:284–296 9. Mitchell V (1992) Understanding consumers’ behaviour: can perceived risk theory help? Manag Decis 30(3) 10. Biswas A, Roy M (2015) Green products: an exploratory study on the consumer behaviour in emerging economies of the east. J Clean Prod 87:463–468 11. Michaud C, Llerena D (2010) Green consumer behaviour: an experimental analysis of willingness to pay for remanufactured products. Bus Strategy Environ 20(6):408–420 12. Magnier L, Mugge R, Schoormans J (2019) Turning ocean garbage into products—consumers’ evaluations of products made of recycled ocean plastic. J Clean Prod 215:84–98 13. Chang C (2011) Feeling ambivalent about going green. J Advert 40(4):19–32 14. Meyer A (2001) What’s in it for the customers? Successfully marketing green clothes. Bus Strategy Environ 10(5):317–330 15. Steenhaut S, Van Kenhove P (2006) The mediating role of anticipated guilt in consumers’ ethical decision-making. J Bus Ethics 69(3):269–288 16. Venhoeven L, Bolderdijk J, Steg L (2020) Why going green feels good. J Environ Psychol 71: 101492 17. Forsythe S, Liu C, Shannon D, Gardner L (2006) Development of a scale to measure the perceived benefits and risks of online shopping. J Interact Mark 20(2):55–75 18. Sweeney J, Soutar G (2001) Consumer perceived value: the development of a multiple item scale. J Retail 77(2):203–220 19. Choi D, Johnson KKP (2019) Influences of environmental and hedonic motivations on intention to purchase green products: an extension of the theory of planned behavior. Sustain Prod Consum 18:145–155 20. Zeng T, Durif F (2019) The influence of consumers’ perceived risks towards eco-design packaging upon the purchasing decision process: an exploratory study. Sustainability 11(21): 6131 21. Keh H, Pang J (2010) Customer reactions to service separation. J Mark 74(2):55–70 22. Trattner A, Hvam L, Forza C, Herbert-Hansen Z (2019) Product complexity and operational performance: a systematic literature review. CIRP J Manuf Sci Technol 25:69–83 23. Fogg BJ (2009) A behavior model for persuasive design. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on persuasive technology

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24. Mahmoudi M, Parviziomran I (2020) Reusable packaging in supply chains: a review of environmental and economic impacts, logistics system designs, and operations management. Int J Prod Econ 228:107730 25. Argo J, Dahl D, Morales A (2006) Consumer contamination: how consumers react to products touched by others. J Mark 70(2):81–94 26. Numata D, Managi S (2012) Demand for refilled reusable products. Environ Econ Policy Stud 14(4):421–436 27. Bradu C, Orquin J, Thøgersen J (2013) The mediated influence of a traceability label on consumer’s willingness to buy the labelled product. J Bus Ethics 124(2):283–295 28. Rijsdijk S, Hultink E (2003) “Honey, have you seen our hamster?” Consumer evaluations of autonomous domestic products. J Prod Innov Manag 20(3):204–216 29. Truong Y (2013) A cross-country study of consumer innovativeness and technological service innovation. J Retail Consum Serv 20(1):130–137 30. Choi SM, Kim Y (2005) Antecedents of green purchase behavior: an examination of collectivism, environmental concern, and PCE. Advances in consumer research. Assoc Consum Res 32(1):592–599 31. Chandrashekaran R (2004) The influence of redundant comparison prices and other price presentation formats on consumers’ evaluations and purchase intentions. J Retail 80(1):53–66 32. Orth U, Campana D, Malkewitz K (2010) Formation of consumer price expectation based on package design: attractive and quality routes. J Mark Theory Pract 18(1):23–40 33. Magnier L, Schoormans J, Mugge R (2016) Judging a product by its cover: packaging sustainability and perceptions of quality in food products. Food Qual Prefer 53:132–142 34. Lofthouse V, Trimingham R, Bhamra T (2017) Reinventing refills: guidelines for design. Packag Technol Sci 30(12):809–818 35. Greenwood SC, Walker S, Baird HM, Parsons R, Mehl S, Webb TL, Slark AT, Ryan AJ, Rothman RH (2021) Many happy returns: combining insights from the environmental and behavioural sciences to understand what is required to make reusable packaging mainstream. Sustain Prod Consum 27:1688–1702 36. Kunamaneni S, Jassi S, Hoang D (2019) Promoting reuse behaviour: challenges and strategies for repeat purchase, low-involvement products. Sustain Prod Consum 20:253–272 37. Steenis N, van Herpen E, van der Lans I, Ligthart T, van Trijp H (2017) Consumer response to packaging design: the role of packaging materials and graphics in sustainability perceptions and product evaluations. J Clean Prod 162:286–298

Chapter 3

Design, Evaluation, and Acceptance of Advanced Energy-Efficient Houses for Thailand Tomohiro Tasaki, Shotaro Kato, Hironori Souda, Taiji Imaizumi, Aya Yoshida, Panate Manomaivibool, and Pattayaporn Unroj

3.1

Introduction

A rapid increase in energy consumption for space cooling is an important global challenge for tackling climate change and achieving decarbonization. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) [1], the global use of energy for space cooling has been growing continuously since the 1990s. Global sales of air conditioners (ACs) more than tripled between 1990 and 2016. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cooling also tripled, to 1130 million tons, in the same period. Increasing energy consumption and the resulting emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in developing countries in tropical regions (e.g., tropical Southeast Asia) are especially of concern. On top of the fact that developing countries are increasing their energy demand, cities in Southeast Asia have many cooling degree days,

T. Tasaki (✉) · A. Yoshida National Institute for Environmental Studies, Ibaraki, Japan e-mail: [email protected] S. Kato SHTRKT, Kanagawa, Japan H. Souda Wellnest Home, Aichi, Japan Japan Energy Pass Association, Tokyo, Japan T. Imaizumi Japan Energy Pass Association, Tokyo, Japan R Design, Chiba, Japan P. Manomaivibool · P. Unroj Circular Economy for Waste-free Thailand Research Center, School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_3

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usually more than 2000. For example, Bangkok has as many as 3105 degree days per year, whereas many cities in developed countries, which are located in non-tropical zone, have fewer than 1000 [2]. Simply put, cooling needs are much greater in tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia. IEA [3] reported that electricity consumption for cooling in buildings across Southeast Asia had increased 7.5 times over 30 years, and it projected that electricity consumption for space cooling would further increase from 75 TWh in 2017 to 300 TWh in 2040. Therefore, improving cooling efficiency is a key area for sustainable production and consumption in this region. Existing policies and measures are focusing on cooling equipment by introducing minimum energy performance standards [4] and labeling ACs [5]. However, the energy performance of houses is equally important, and the IEA report [3] has pointed out that it is critical to consider efficient building design to maximize the efficiency of ACs and other cooling technologies. Yoshida et al. [6] and Hichiya and Inoue [7] showed that conventional designs of houses in Thailand were not airtight at all; even modern houses leaked when ACs were installed, resulting in poor energy performance. Techniques and technologies for advanced energy-efficient houses or so-called zero energy houses (ZEHs) have progressed in developed countries [8–10] and have begun to be disseminated in developing countries in Asia [11]. For example, a flagship initiative of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction that was launched in the context of the Paris Agreement in 2015 provides a platform for collecting case studies in energy-efficient houses in tropical regions, including India, Thailand, and Vietnam [12]. Campana [13] explained initiatives to construct sustainable buildings in hot climates in the context of this platform. Iwata gathered technologies used in tropical and subtropical areas, including conventional and indigenous low (simple) technologies, and supported Okinawa Prefecture to provide guidelines for energy-saving houses in subtropical Okinawa [14, 15]. Salzer et al. [16] evaluated potential reductions in GHG emissions that could be achieved through the use of different building materials, including local materials such as bamboo and coconut in the Philippines. Umemoto et al. [17] showed that improving insulation in an energy-efficient house built in Malaysia could reduce electricity consumption by approximately 63%. To promote the dissemination of such advanced techniques and technologies for energy-efficient houses, we designed advanced energy-efficient houses for Thailand on the basis of ZEH techniques used in Japan, and we assessed the potential for energy saving, as well as other benefits and costs. We discuss stakeholders’ acceptance of such houses with professionals working in the Thai housing market.

3.2 3.2.1

Methods Procedure and Target Area

First, we designed advanced energy-efficient houses for Thailand on the basis of ZEH techniques used in Japan. We then assessed the potential energy saving, as well

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as other benefits and costs. To determine the acceptance of such houses, we also held stakeholder discussions with professionals working in the Thai housing market. Two cities from regions with different climates were chosen: Bangkok, from the central/ south, and Chiang Rai, from the north.

3.2.2

Design of Energy-Efficient Houses

In our design, we set the following priorities: (1) minimization of energy requirements for space cooling, (2) introduction of highly energy-efficient equipment, (3) self-creation of energy (choosing a method of supplying power generation with low environmental impacts), and (4) choice of green (e.g., renewable) electricity. People generally tend to pay more attention to items such as solar panels (our priority number 3 mentioned above), but self-supplied electricity cannot address performance issues. Reduction of energy use needs to be prioritized in the design process. Second, we collected data on monthly and daily temperature, humidity, and sunlight direction in the two target areas [18] and investigated standard houses in Thailand by studying Thai housing websites. On the basis of these results and those of Yoshida et al. [6], we modeled two types of two-story dwellings: a detached house and a townhouse. They had the same floor area (120 m2) and were made of reinforced concrete (RC). Figures 3.1 and 3.2 show the floorplans of each house. GRAPHISOFT Archicad® software was used to visualize the houses, as well as to check the structural feasibility of the design (Fig. 3.3).

Fig. 3.1 Detached house floorplan. (a) First floor. (b) Second floor

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Fig. 3.2 Townhouse floorplan. (a) First floor. (b) Second floor

Fig. 3.3 Computer-generated images of the energy-efficient houses. (a) Detached house. (b) Townhouse

For the priority 1 (minimization of energy requirements), insulation, airtightness, and solar shading needed to be considered. Table 3.1 shows the specifications for some of the aspects of the conventional and energy-efficient houses modeled. Wall and ceiling insulation and triple-glazed windows with resin frames and solar shields were used in the energy-efficient houses. The U values of thermal transmittance performance of each part of the houses were improved, as shown in Table 3.1. Archicad® software was used to conduct the insolation simulations needed to calculate solar shading. For the priority 2 (introduction of equipment), we minimized the use of cooling equipment (i.e., to one AC per house) by introducing heat-exchange ventilators and a void connecting the first and second floors to circulate air efficiently (Figs. 3.1 and 3.2). Heat-exchange ventilators also help to keep humid outside air from entering the

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Table 3.1 Specifications of the designed houses Conventional house λ Specifications (W/mK) 0.53 Concrete block 70 mm, no insulation

Walls

Ceiling

Floor Foundations Windows

Entrance door

U (W/m2K) 3.55

RC (reinforced concrete) 100 mm, no insulation RC150 mm, no insulation RC, no insulation Aluminum frame, single glazed, ordinary glass

1.6

4.12

1.6

2.54

1.6

0.96

–

6.51

Wooden

–

4.65

Energy efficient house λ (W/mK) Specifications Concrete block 0.53 70 mm 0.022 Phenol foam 50 mm RC 100 mm 1.6 Phenol foam 0.022 100 mm

RC150 mm, no insulation RC, with insulation Plastic frame, triple glazed, low-emissivity solar-shieldcoated glass Wooden, with insulation

U (W/m2K) 0.39

0.21

1.6

2.54

0.03

0.3

–

0.94

–

1.75

The λ values and U values indicate thermal conductivity and thermal transmittance value, respectively

house. A lower dehumidification load means lower energy consumption and greater comfort. Besides, the priorities 3 and 4 were out of the scope of this study.

3.2.3

Estimation of Cooling Energy Demand, Etc.

We used the Energy Pass® calculation method of energy consumption of houses to estimate cooling energy demand [19]. In this estimation, we set a room temperature of 25 °C as a comfortable living condition in all months. We also calculated the energy-related performance values (C for airtightness, Q for heat loss, UA for thermal transmittance, and ηAC for insolation). Life-cycle costs were estimated by calculating the differences in cost between conventional and advanced energy-efficient houses. No data were available in Thailand for new materials and equipment for the advanced houses, so we used prices from Japan (with a currency exchange rate of 0.29 baht per yen). The cost of electricity in Thailand was set at approximately 4 baht/kWh. We also considered the reduced cost of purchasing new ACs, that is, the advanced energy-efficient houses

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are equipped with only one AC, while the conventional detached and townhouses have four or five.

3.2.4

Stakeholder Discussions

The results of the house design and evaluation were presented to researchers and architects in Thailand (professionals working in the Thai housing market) during two webinars in August and November 2020 to determine their acceptance and impressions of the energy-efficient houses. There were seven participants at the first webinar and 11 at the second. First, a Japanese housing expert (one of the authors) explained the following: (1) the background of ZEHs built in Japan, to help the participants understand their feasibility, (2) the design and building concepts of ZEHs, (3) specifications for the designed advanced energy-efficient houses and their energy-related performance, (4) annual electricity and life-cycle costs of the designed houses, and (5) a summary of the conclusions. The results of the Sects. 3.2.1–3.2.3 were summarized and data presented. The participants and the authors then had a question-and-answer session about the presentation and discussed the participants’ views about Thai people’s acceptance of the designed houses and the concept.

3.3 3.3.1

Results and Discussion Design of Energy-Efficient Houses

Insolation simulation results showed that the north wall is also exposed to the sun from April to September in Bangkok. An example from June is shown in Fig. 3.4. Therefore, all four exterior walls would need sun shields. The insolation simulation was therefore conducted with eaves and external blinds in the advanced energyefficient houses. The simulation results showed that the reductions in insolation heat Fig. 3.4 Insolation simulation in Bangkok

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Table 3.2 Annual insolation heat gain of the four designed houses in two areas in Thailand (unit: kWh)

Bangkok

Detached house Conventional 13,133

Chiang Rai

13,181

Energy efficient 1751 (87%) 1759 (87%)

Townhouse Conventional 6503 6570

Energy efficient 1286 (80%) 1298 (80%)

Values in parentheses indicate the reduction rates

Table 3.3 Energy-related characteristics of the designed houses Detached house

Airtightness performance, C value (cm2/ m2) Heat-loss coefficient, Q value (W/m2K) Mean thermal transmittance of outer structure, UA value (W/m2K) Mean insolation heat gain rate of outer structure, ηAC value (W/(W/m2))

Townhouse

Conventional 5.00

Energy efficient 0.30

Conventional 5.00

Energy efficient 0.30

9.17 3.37

1.03 0.38

5.95 3.49

0.63 0.37

4.50

0.61

8.44

0.84

gain were 80% and 87%, respectively, for the designed townhouses and detached houses, regardless of the location. The differences between the two cities were very small (Table 3.2). Townhouses receive sunlight on their south and north walls and roof only, and this provides a benefit in terms of preventing insolation heat gain. Insolation heat gain can be cut in half, even in conventional townhouses, as compared with in a conventional detached house (Table 3.2). Monthly averages were within ±23% of the annual monthly average, so sunlight shielding is necessary throughout the year. The estimated energy-related performance values of the four houses are shown in Table 3.3. The energy-efficient detached house was far more airtight (C = 0.30 vs. 5.00) and had a much better heat-loss coefficient (Q = 1.03 vs. 9.17) than the conventional one. Due to these performances, by circulating indoor air, such as with a ceiling fan or a duct ventilation system, an entire energy-efficient house can be cooled with just one AC to maintain both indoor temperature and humidity at set levels. Both types of advanced energy-efficient houses reduced the cooling load in both regions every month as compared with conventional houses (Fig. 3.5). The annual reduction rates ranged from 60% to 78%. The annual electricity consumption for each type of house and area is shown in Table 3.4; the energy-efficient homes reduced consumption by 70–81%. The reduction rates were larger in detached houses because the conventional detached houses consumed so much electricity. Therefore, improving the energy efficiency of existing detached houses should be a

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Fig. 3.5 Estimated monthly cooling loads of the four designed houses in Thailand Table 3.4 Annual electricity consumption in the four designed houses in Bangkok and Chiang Rai (unit: kWh)

Bangkok

Detached house Conventional 11,546

Chiang Rai

6945

Energy efficient 2204 (81%) 1631 (77%)

Townhouse Conventional 8248 4661

Energy efficient 1816 (78%) 1418 (70%)

Values in parentheses indicate the reduction rates

high priority in environmental policy. The energy efficiency of townhouses was superior to that of detached houses; however, so environmental housing policy should also promote building townhouses for new construction when possible. To gain greater consumer acceptance on townhouse, awareness raising about the benefits and public dialogues over the pros and cons of detached houses and townhouses as well as consumer preferences and their lifestyles would be needed. Townhouses have benefits in terms of not only reducing electricity consumption but also reducing land cost and utilization. The area within the red dashed line in Fig. 3.6 is wasted in the case of detached houses. For townhouses, this area is not needed and the cost to acquire the land can be reduced; alternatively, the land can be used as an unfragmented area. This is a particularly important benefit in urban areas where land prices are high. One typical concern with townhouses is noise, but soundproof walls can reduce noise significantly, even for sounds as high as 90 dB [20]. Figure 3.5 shows that cooling is not necessary in Chiang Rai between December and February. People there are used to letting natural ventilation into their houses during the day in these seasons as well as at night in the other seasons. Demand for

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Fig. 3.6 Benefits of a townhouse in terms of land cost and utilization (The red dashed line in the panel on the left outlines the area saved in the townhouses) Table 3.5 Differences in initial cost of an energy-efficient house as compared with a conventional house (unit: 1000 baht) Detached house Insulation

Ventilation Airconditioner Total

Outer wall Roof Windows Entrance door Heat exchange type (6 units) Reduction in number (from 5 units to 1 unit)

Townhouse 370 131 434 53 157 -116

117 131 225 53 157 -87

1028

595

energy-efficient houses in northern Thailand would therefore probably increase more gradually in the future compared with demand in Bangkok. The results of life-cycle cost calculations are shown in Table 3.5 and Fig. 3.7. The energy-efficient houses can reduce the number of ACs in a house and the purchasing cost, but the cost of improved insulation offsets that reduction (Table 3.5). In total, an additional 600–1000 thousand baht are required for an energy-efficient house. This increase in initial cost can be offset by reduced electricity costs. Even in the Chiang Rai case in the northern part of Thailand, the initial cost is offset after 25–26 years for detached houses and townhouses (Fig. 3.7). In the Bangkok case, the period was estimated to be 16–18 years. Assuming a lifespan of more than 30 years for these houses, the increased initial cost of the advanced energy-efficient houses is more than offset by the reduced electricity costs, especially in the southern part of Thailand.

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Fig. 3.7 Comparison of life-cycle costs between conventional and advanced energy-efficient houses designed for Thailand (Chiang Rai case)

3.3.2

Stakeholder Discussions

The designed house concepts and results were shared with Thai researchers and architects at two webinars. Clean air and health promotion were highlighted by the Thai participants as appealing co-benefits of the advanced energy-efficient houses. Air pollution—especially PM2.5 (particulate matter 150 5.4–5.8

Using the properties from the second cycle PET, results differ significantly. The closest materials are thermoplastic starch, PP and both ABS and PS foams. The foam materials are the ones with the highest prices (3.35–3.68 USD/kg and 2.78–3.06 USD/kg, respectively). This may be an indication that, at this point, mechanical recycling is no longer a sound alternative, economically speaking, and that there might be opportunities to upcycle the material through chemical means by generating foams from PET. The third, fourth, and fifth cycle properties bring the materials closer to construction materials such as insulating concrete and different wood materials (birch, particle boards, chipboards, and strand boards). These are all materials with much lower values.

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Fig. 12.7 Results from the software for recycled PP

12.3.3 PP Recycling Polypropylene is deemed a challenging plastic to recycle, with recycling numbers usually below 10% in most countries. There are many reasons posited to explain this situation in non-peer reviewed sources, from the poor quality of the recycled material to sensory (and even psychological) perceptions related to some of its applications [8]. The methodology was applied here with data from the literature for postconsumer recycled PP containing a hindered amine stabilizer and 20% calcium carbonate particles as filler [9], compiled in Table 12.5. The density was assumed to be the same as the one given by the reference database for a PP copolymer with 20% calcium filler (1040–1060 kg/m3 [6]). The results returned by the methodology are shown in Fig. 12.7. They consist mostly of different compositions of PP, indicating that the polymer is indeed suitable for recycling in similar applications as its virgin counterpart.

12.4 Discussion Overall, the results obtained using the software and the method proposed in this chapter are consistent with what is suggested in the literature and in industrial practices. This software-based rationale provides advantages for supporting design and recycling decision, with a systematic and agile process. It can also foster

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innovative outputs for secondary raw materials coming from unexpected similarities between materials. By focusing on an ultimate choice, based on a price comparison (as a proxy for value), the method can also be especially useful to determine the potential for upcycling of a waste deposit, as seen in the original study for toothbrush recycling. In some cases, the degradation of properties such as the one seen in the mechanical recycling of PET is so severe that the material could only be recycled in the initial application by adding it to the virgin material feedstock (if there are no health or safety hazards involved). Nevertheless, as early as the second mechanical recycling, the method has shown that there are no direct application options, which points to chemical recycling being perhaps a better alternative. However, as this would involve a new processing route and extra costs would be incurred. There are nonetheless studies that confirm PET foams as an alternative for post-consumer recycling [10]. This creates new material streams via cycling operations, which tends to affect the downstream subsequent lifecycles [5]. Though it may be interesting from an economic point of view, this generates a new material that may not be correctly handled by the current end-of-life stakeholders. It may be a better solution than turning it into fibers for insulation material, which would be the only possible outcome for the subsequent cycles as seen in Sect. 12.3.2. The application of the method to recycled PP is noteworthy because it confirms the strong potential that the material has for closed loop recycling since the secondary raw material has properties similar to the primary material. Increasing the throughput for this case is therefore largely a process and logistics issue. It must be acknowledged that material streams are not homogenous or stable. The volume and composition consistency (especially regarding contaminants) is also a key factor when devising a cycling operation. Checking stability and scale was not considered here but should be in the case of broader industrial projects, in pilot experiments or prototyping.

12.5

Conclusion

This chapter introduces a revised, systematic, and streamlined method to the approach proposed by Ashton et al. (2018) for the identification of secondary raw materials applications. It adds a dimension of value analysis that is important for circular business models [11] and circular product design [12]. The use of a large database queried by a tool to determine similar materials enables the quick assessment of suitable applications to generate cycling operations. This novel approach could be of interest to both recyclers looking to commercialize their outputs and to product designers wishing to incorporate secondary raw materials in their supply chain. It provides a rationale to systematize the search for potential material loops. As with any circular economy initiative that is interested in creating material loops, this method is limited by the availability and consistency of secondary raw materials data. In the cases presented in this study, only some available mechanical

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properties from the literature were used in generating the records. A further analysis based on additional properties (electrical, thermal, optical, etc.) could refine the solutions proposed here. Implementing this analytical approach in recycling facilities with access to testing and characterization equipment represents an ideal scenario for generating circular business models. The focus in the examples treated was mainly polymers since the global plastics economy is still mainly linear. This is due to the difficult nature of their recycling, with important property losses and overall low recyclability. The method presented here could nevertheless be used on other material classes such as ceramics or composites, and even in metallurgical applications, such as refractory materials. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Dr. Elisa Guerra Ashton Eichenberg (ESPMRS), Prof. Wilson Kindlein Jr. (UFRGS) and Prof. Yuri Walter (UFES), for their contributions to this chapter.

References 1. Lindgreen ER, Salomone R, Reyes T (2020) A critical review of academic approaches, methods and tools to assess circular economy at the micro level. Sustainability 12:4973 2. Friant MC, Vermeulen WJV, Salomone R (2020) A typology of circular economy discourses: navigating the diverse visions of a contested paradigm. Resour Conserv Recycl 161 3. Bauer T, Brissaud D, Zwolinski P (2017) Design for high added-value end-of-life strategies. In: Stark R, Seliger G, Bonvoisin J (eds) Sustainable manufacturing. Springer, pp 113–128. https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48514-0 4. Grimaud G, Perry N, Laratte B (2017) Evaluation de la performance technique des scenarios de recyclage durant la conception. Colloque National AIP Primeca, pp 1–7 5. Ashton EG, Kindlein Junior W, Walter Y, Dwek M, Zwolinski P (2018) Identification of potential applications for recycled polymeric multi-material. Int J Sustain Eng 11(6):420–428 6. Ansys Granta EduPack (2021) R2 software. ANSYS, Inc. www.ansys.com/materials 7. Schyns ZOG, Shaver MP (2021) Mechanical recycling of packaging plastics: a review. Macromol Rapid Commun 42:2000415. https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202000415 8. Chasan E (2019) There is finally a way to recycle the plastic in shampoo and yogurt packaging. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-09-25/polypropylene-plastic-can-finally-berecycled 9. Brachet P, Hoydal LT, Hinrichsen EL, Melum F (2008) Modification of mechanical properties of recycled polypropylene from post-consumer containers. Waste Manag 28:2456–2464 10. Bedell M, Brown M, Kiziltas A, Mielewski D, Mukerjee S, Tabor R (2018) A case for closedloop recycling of post-consumer PET for automotive foams. Waste Manag 71:97–108. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.10.021. ISSN 0956-053X 11. Lewandowski M (2016) Designing the business models for circular economy—towards the conceptual framework. Sustainability 8(1):1–28. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8010043 12. Dwek M (2017) Integration of material circularity in product design. PhD dissertation, Université Grenoble Alpes

Chapter 13

Digital Product Passports in Circular Economy: Case Battery Passport Teuvo Uusitalo, Marjaana Karhu, Sami Majaniemi, Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Jyri Hanski, and Saija Vatanen

13.1

Introduction

Transport accounts for a large share of fossil fuel consumption in Europe. It is responsible for a quarter of the greenhouse gas emissions of the European Union (EU). Road transport contributes to one-fifth of total CO2 emissions in the EU [1]. Electrification of road transport provides an opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint if electricity comes from renewable energy sources. Progress in battery technologies determines the overall economy and sustainability of electrification solutions. The entire value chain of the product and the entire life cycle must be covered: exploration, mining and processing of raw materials, design and production of batteries, use and end of life [2]. Material and product traceability are important enablers of a circular economy. Monitoring products and materials throughout their life cycle makes it possible to retain their value in the most optimal manner. Digital product passports have been suggested as a tool that would allow different stakeholders to have access to product and material information to improve circularity and sustainability [3]. In December 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for the regulation of sustainable batteries. The regulation includes an article concerning the battery passport, which requires that industrial batteries and electric vehicle batteries have an electronic record (battery passport) for each individual battery placed on the market by 1 January 2026 [4]. The key questions related to battery passport implementation are still under development. This chapter presents the results of a study that defined the data needs of battery-value chain actors and how the battery passport should address these needs. A literature review was carried out to scope the state of the art research T. Uusitalo (✉) · M. Karhu · S. Majaniemi · P. Kivikytö-Reponen · J. Hanski · S. Vatanen VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd., Espoo, Finland e-mail: teuvo.uusitalo@vtt.fi © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_13

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in this field, representatives of key battery value chain actors in Finland were interviewed, and a workshop was organised that defined the data requirements.

13.2 13.2.1

Material and Methods Literature Review

Scoping review was selected as the research strategy in this study. In a scoping review, the literature in the studied area is rapidly collected, with the aim of providing an overview of the type, extent and amount of available research [5]. Scoping review is applicable for identifying the types of evidence available in a given field, clarifying key concepts and definitions in the literature, examining how research is conducted on a certain topic or field, or identifying key characteristics or factors related to a concept. It can be used as a precursor to a systematic review and to identify and analyse knowledge gaps [6]. Scoping review is selected as the research strategy, instead of a systematic review, due to the exploratory nature of this research. The objective of the literature review was to provide an overview of the topic and identify key characteristics related to product and battery passports. The literature search was carried out in May–June 2021 using the Scopus database. Keywords ‘product passport’, ‘material* passport’ and ‘battery passport’ were used for the search. In addition to the scientific literature, a generic search engine was used to cover relevant reports and grey literature.

13.2.2

Interviews

In total, 24 interviews were conducted with representatives of battery-value chain actors in Finland, including mines, mineral refineries, application manufacturers, research and recycling. The interviews were carried out from February to June 2021. The questions in the interviews were related to the following general topics: data needs, role of data, circularity drivers and future data opportunities. In addition, battery passport-specific questions were included and asked as part of the interviews, including questions about the relevance of the battery passport to support business, what data the battery passport should include, what key performance indicators (KPIs) should be calculated from the data, and what data and KPIs are relevant to support decision making. The interviews were carried out in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations. Data have been analysed by screening the recorded interview materials to reveal initial thoughts on circularity drivers, data needs, role of data and data opportunities. Battery passport-related questions were

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screened separately. The preliminary findings of the interviews are presented in this chapter.

13.2.3

Workshop

A workshop was organised around the theme: Batteries—from data to circular concepts and practices. The workshop was organised on 9 June 2021. The workshop was a virtual event and Zoom was used for the meeting communication. For the discussions within the workshop, the Miro online board was used. Workshop registration was open to all and more than 50 participants from Finnish companies, universities and research organisations participated in the event. During the workshop, discussion was initiated in smaller groups on the topics of data sharing and access to data, data flow business opportunities, traceability, digital tools and battery passport and comments were collected from all the participants. Participants were encouraged to discuss the following topics more specifically: What data are already available to enable the circular economy and what additional data would be needed? What are the barriers to data sharing? How can data sharing be facilitated within the value chain? What business opportunities would data related to circularity offer? How can business opportunities be identified in the circular economy? How can we improve the traceability of batteries? What types of benefits could the battery passport offer the circular economy? What type of information is needed to enable the transparency and traceability of materials and batteries? Preliminary findings gathered from the workshop are presented in this chapter.

13.3

Results

The search of the literature from the Scopus database resulted in eight articles for ‘product passport’ and 22 articles for ‘material* passport’. Keyword search ‘battery passport’ provided no results. This indicates that the field of product passports is an area where a limited amount of research has been carried out so far. In the following sections, key findings for material passports, product passports and battery passports are presented.

13.3.1

Materials Passports

In the building and construction sector, there have been several studies on materials passport in recent years. Materials passports have been defined as [7] ‘sets of data describing defined characteristics of materials and components in products and systems that give them value for present use, recovery, and reuse’. In building and

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construction materials, passports are a digital data set for a specific building, providing a detailed inventory of all materials, components, and products used in a building, as well as detailed information on quantities, qualities, dimensions and locations of all materials [8]. Munaro and Tavares review 15 articles on material passports [9]. Their analysis indicates that there have been some efforts in the implementation of materials passports in the construction sector. The use of materials passports is still not widespread, and there is a lack of research and awareness of the opportunities that materials passports could provide to different stakeholders in the construction sector. Heisel and Rau-Oberhuber [8] describe the process and results of documenting a case study building on a materials passport platform. The chosen platform was Madaster, which provides the database, software and tools for users to generate, store and manage individual materials passports [10]. The study process consisted of the generation of data and the input into a database, the production of the material passport, and the calculation of a circularity index. Based on their results, material passports and circularity indicators can provide a means to provide the necessary data to manage material stocks and flows within the system and assess the performance of individual buildings in terms of material consumption and their potential for future reuse. In an EU-funded research project, a digital materials passport platform has been developed. The materials passport aims to increase or maintain the value of materials, products and components over time; create incentives for suppliers to produce healthy, sustainable and circular materials/building products; support materials choices in building design projects; make it easier for developers, managers and renovators to choose healthy, sustainable and circular building materials; and facilitate reverse logistics and reclaiming of products, materials and components [11]. A proof of concept has been developed for a material passport for a residential building [12]. The compiled materials passport can be used as a design optimisation tool and as an inventory of embedded materials. The developed materials passport consists of qualitative and quantitative information on the composition of the material and the distribution of the material within a building structure. This makes it possible to evaluate the embedded materials of a building according to the mass, recycling potential and environmental impact. A materials passport can be compiled in the early design stages, where changes with high impact can be implemented at low cost. The methodology was tested on a building model and not on a real building.

13.3.2

Product Passports

Digital product passports are seen as a promising policy instrument and there are high expectations from various stakeholders [13]. Development is still in an early phase, and there are several matters presently pending. Implementing so that the

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benefits for different actors are visible and reduce costs or efforts is a prerequisite for the successful adoption of product passports [13]. Product passports could provide information on products’ use phase and repair that can lead to new circular business models that extend the useful life of the products [13]. Product passports in the future could provide an interoperable information system for accessing product data from different channels on one public interface. It would provide a central point of access linking multiple databases. The passport would use digital tools to enable access through unique identifiers, and information could be tailored for different actors. All environmental information should be made public [14]. The product passport should provide the following information [14]: – – – –

Durability: expected lifetime ideally aligned with free guarantee period. Repairability: including access to manuals and schematics. Recyclability: sorting, dismantling and hazards guidelines. Environmental performance: environmental footprint (based on LCA), notably, carbon footprint, resource depletion, material footprint and water footprint. – Energy use efficiency: for energy products. – Contents of hazardous substances: bill of materials and bill of chemicals. – Social data, such as due diligence and fair-trade certificates. The European Commission has introduced in its recent circular economy and sustainability-related policy documents the product passport as a possible means for providing product-related information. In the European Green Deal (December 2019), it is stated that an electronic product passport could provide information on the origin, composition, repair and dismantling possibilities of a product and end-oflife handling [3]. In the circular economy Action Plan, March 2020, the European data space for smart circular applications is expected to provide the architecture and governance system to drive applications and services, such as product passports [15]. In the Sustainable Products Initiative roadmap (September 2020), EU rules are being considered to establish requirements on mandatory sustainability labelling and/or disclosure of information to market actors along value chains in the form of a digital product passport [16].

13.3.3

Battery Passport

In December 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for the sustainable regulation of batteries [4]. According to the proposed regulation, the following requirements need to be met: – By January 1, 2026, each industrial battery and electric vehicle battery placed on the market or put into service and whose capacity is greater than 2 kWh shall have an electronic record, the battery passport.

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Table 13.1 The proposed information content for the battery passport adopted from [19] Information topic Lifecycle information

Environmental information Social Governance

Description Battery traceability and identity with a focus on the cell and pack level Disclosing limited battery data such as battery chemistry and recycled content, as well as dynamic data, e.g. on battery health, safety and lifecycle Carbon footprint and environmental impact Proof of compliance with human rights, fair labour practices and community relations Demonstration of business ethics, transparent and extensive reporting

– The battery passport shall be unique for each individual battery and shall be identified by a unique identifier. – The battery passport shall be linked to information on the basic characteristics of each type and model of battery. – The economic operator who places an industrial battery or an electric vehicle battery on the market shall ensure that the data included in the battery passport are accurate, complete and up to date. – The battery passport shall be accessible online, through electronic systems. – The battery passport must allow access to information about the values of performance and durability parameters when the battery is placed on the market and when it is subject to changes in its status. – The battery passport must be linked to the information on the basic characteristics of each battery type and model. – When the change in status is due to repairing or repurposing activities, the responsibility for the battery record in the battery passport shall be transferred to the economic operator that is considered to place the industrial battery or the electric vehicle battery on the market or that puts it into service. The Global Battery Alliance (GBA) has been established as an industry initiative to help establish a sustainable battery value chain [17]. GBA is developing a battery passport that is a digital representation of a battery. The battery passport will contain information on the relevant sustainability and life cycle requirements. Each battery passport will be a digital twin of its physical battery enabled by the digital battery passport platform to securely share information and data [18]. The proposed information content of the battery passport is presented in Table 13.1.

13.3.4

Interviews

The initial findings of the stakeholder interviews related to circularity drivers, data, needs, role of data and future data-related opportunities are presented in Table 13.2. Generally, the primary drivers for circularity are the targets for carbon neutrality and

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Table 13.2 Initial findings of interviews Circularity drivers Electrification Customer demands on sustainability EU regulation on take-back Cost management and savings Data needs Harmonised data on secondary material streams in one place, for example, tailings composition data and urban mining data Value chain data upstream and downstream Customer use data, also by the public sector Role of data in CE operations Quality assurance and traceability Customer needs identification Customer use data (machine etc.) Future data-related opportunities New business models/earnings logic, for example, combos of gate fees and product sales Reduction of CO2 emissions and energy use based on real-time data Longer battery lifetime via collecting performance and use data

Material efficiency and utilisation of secondary streams Carbon neutrality targets and EU carbon footprint declaration EU regulation on the blending requirement for recycled materials Social and environmental sustainability Raw material data, for example, mineral deposit data Data for material passports and material inventories Database for secondary and primary materials properties and prices Operations optimisation Compliance reporting Process automatisation and digitalisation, decision making Secondary materials utilisation Data on secondary material users and uses Demand management with data

electrification, increasing the demands of customers regarding sustainability and the EU regulation on the recovery and the mixing requirements for recycled materials. Additionally, material efficiency and utilisation of secondary streams, cost management and potential savings are seen to drive toward circularity. Data need emphasise value chain data upstream and the downstream and availability of harmonised data on secondary material streams. The role of data in circular economy operations emphasises the need for quality assurance and traceability. New business models are seen to be crucial to capture future opportunities, as well as secondary materials and their utilisation. Based on the preliminary findings from the interviews, the battery passport is seen as a good way to provide evidence of the sustainability and responsible sourcing of battery materials, and it is also seen as a marketing argument. At the same time, it is seen as a ‘first-movers’ benefit for companies that are the forerunners in battery passport initiatives. On the other hand, the value creation and benefits for each value

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chain actor need to be clear. Otherwise, the battery passport is easily seen only as a legislative obligation. Most of the clients of the companies currently claim the information that is suggested for inclusion in the battery passport. Thus, the battery passport itself does not change the situation related to information needs. However, more relevant is the access to the data because now the data are mostly customer-specific confidential data, and it is not open to all value-chain actors. Accessibility to all actors in the value chain is seen to be one of the biggest advantages of the battery passport: information flow and traceability throughout the value chain. For example, if there is a fault situation with the battery, then it is easier to locate at which stage a fault has occurred and solve the situation. Furthermore, with greater access to data at different stages, it is possible to better simulate battery performance and safety. There are already some battery-related obligations in the EU area for battery manufacturers, electric car manufacturers and the machinery industry. For example, if customers want to return a battery, companies have an obligation to collect them. EU regulations and legislation related to battery recycling and collection are also one of the main drivers for battery passport development. Specifically, the recycling stage is seen to benefit from the battery passport. It is seen that the battery passport should include the battery history information (origin, manufacturing history and traceability, quality, carbon footprints of the components manufacturing) and location information. Based on the interviews, it is not clear what all of the necessary key performance indicators (KPIs) to be calculated from the data are. Information on a battery’s history helps determine the selection between second life and recycling. Location information helps in battery collection and logistics. The battery passport could also provide useful safety information regarding the transportation of the used batteries: for example, is the battery damaged? International collaboration is considered essential for successful battery recycling and collection. Logistics optimisation is seen as one of the key factors to success.

13.3.5

Workshop

The results of the workshop are presented in Table 13.3. There already exist a lot of data on individual actors in the value chain, but there is a lack of common understanding of how to collect data for wider use and how to process the data to create relevant knowledge. Commonly accepted rules about data ownership, publicity and sharing should be established. Security is considered essential. On the other hand, there is still a lack of data sharing tools that could enable the sharing of confidential data in the ecosystem. The trusted third party to collect data and lead the ecosystem was considered an option. For example, data sharing is considered problematic when data are a valuable resource or contain sensitive information. Incentives or rewards can be one way to promote the sharing and combining of data.

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Table 13.3 Initial findings of the workshop Data sharing and access to data Currently, raw data are collected locally. Data should be processed before they can be shared Commonly accepted rules about data ownership, publicity and sharing Barriers for data sharing: Data is a valuable resource and brings a competitive advantage, waste material data may be sensitive A specification of requirements must be created for data processing Data flows in circular battery value chain Material flows, how often side streams are produced Characteristics of by-products Business opportunities Co-creation and an open innovation platform are needed to create new business Business models of the side streams utilisation Traceability, digital tools, battery passport Security is essential in data sharing and management Benefits of the battery passport: Easier to recycle, optimisation of usage, and in the long run better batteries The battery passport should include information on the state of health and charging history: Defines the second life possibilities and also the testing needs

The marketplace needs to be created and set requirements for data processing Lack of data-sharing tools that could enable the sharing of confidential data within a given ecosystem Data will be shared if clear benefit is seen

Incentives & rewards for sharing, combining and resharing data Production-phase energy consumption GHG emissions Opportunities for third-party actors along the value chain, e.g. for refurbishment, collection Network facilitators needed-currently actors are in silos Specification of requirements needs to be identified as traceability-specifies the data needs Use tracking technologies and blockchain to gain trust Up-to-date information about existing and upcoming regulations

Data on material flows, side stream volumes and their characteristics are circularity-promoting data. Co-creation and network facilitators are needed to create new business opportunities; currently, actors are working in silos. The need for business models for the utilisation of side streams is emphasised. The battery passport is specifically seen as beneficial to facilitate recycling and optimise usage. It should include information on the state of health and charging history of the battery to define the second-life opportunities and testing needs of used batteries. Again, it was emphasised that the specification of requirements must be identified for traceability to specify data needs. Security plays an essential role. The use of tracking and blockchain technologies is recommended to gain trust. In addition, there is a need to constantly update information on existing and upcoming regulations.

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Conclusions

The results of the literature review indicate that there is a limited amount of research in the field of product passports. There are several policy-level initiatives currently at the EU level that consider the adoption of digital product passports. One of those areas is the battery passport. The general conclusion of the interviews and the workshop is that the battery passport is considered a positive development that could provide benefits to the actors in the battery value chain and help communication and information sharing throughout the value chain. Battery passports are seen to provide information not only for companies, but also for consumers and authorities on durability, repairability and recycling and compliance with standards and requirements. It is important that the battery passport truly creates value for companies and not just increases the burden of bureaucracy. Understanding the entire value chain and the available resources is essential. Technical issues related to the secure sharing of sensitive data need to be solved. The key questions that need to be solved in the implementation of a battery passport are related to where the data are stored, who has access to the data, how the data are analysed, and what the key performance indicators are and how they are calculated. Batteries should be designed for reuse and recycling and have sufficient history information to identify battery safety and chemistry for sorting. The operating history or remaining useful life of large battery systems should be shared to assess the profitability and safety of potential reuse. The battery passport should provide access to information on, e.g. sustainability, the origin of raw materials, the chemistry of the materials, the chain of custody, and the state of health. Data storage could be distributed in different databases and the battery passport would provide a user interface to access information. Blockchain is a potential technology for automating contracts related to information exchange. A battery passport that provides relevant life cycle information would enable value chain actors to use the information in design-related decisions to improve the circularity of batteries. The development of the battery passport is currently proceeding as shown, e.g. by the initiative of the Global Battery Alliance. There is a clear need to implement the battery passport to support the transparency and traceability of battery life cycle information. Implementing product passports in other areas has been suggested, but development is still at an early stage. There is a need for further research on the drivers, barriers, and solutions to develop a product passport concept that is applicable to other product categories. The interviews and the workshop focused on the situation in Finland. However, the results of this study should also be applicable to other countries. Battery value chains are global, and the organisations involved are part of these global value chains. The challenges and opportunities identified apply to the battery value chain as a whole.

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Acknowledgements The research has been supported by the Academy of Finland, the Circular Design Network project, funding decision #337713, and by VTT. The project partners of the Circular Design Network are the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Aalto University, the Geological Survey of Finland GTK, the Natural Resources Institute LuKe and the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE. The authors would like to thank this study’s research partners, interviewees and workshop participants for their valuable time and input.

References 1. Çabukoglu E, Georges G, Küng L et al (2018) Battery electric propulsion: an option for heavyduty vehicles? Results from a Swiss case-study. Transp Res Part C Emerg Technol 88:107–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TRC.2018.01.013 2. Boon-Brett L, Lebedeva N, Di Persio F (2016) Lithium ion battery value chain and related opportunities for Europe. Publications Office of the European Union, LU. https://data.europa. eu/doi/10.2760/6060 3. European Commission (2019) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and The Committee of the Regions. The Europea Green Deal. COM(2019) 640 final. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52019DC0640 4. European Commission (2020) Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries, repealing Directive 2006/66/EC and amending Regulation (EU) No 2019/1020 5. Curtin University (2019) Systematic reviews in the health sciences. https://libguides.library. curtin.edu.au/systematic-reviews. Accessed 27 Jan 2020 6. Munn Z, Peters MDJ, Stern C et al (2018) Systematic review or scoping review? Guidance for authors when choosing between a systematic or scoping review approach. BMC Med Res Methodol 18:7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-018-0611-x 7. Heinrich M, Lang W (2019) Materials passports—best practice. Innovative Solutions for a Transition to a Circular Economy in the Built Environment Publisher. Technische Universität München, in association with BAMB 8. Heisel F, Rau-Oberhuber S (2020) Calculation and evaluation of circularity indicators for the built environment using the case studies of UMAR and Madaster. J Clean Prod 243:118482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118482 9. Munaro MR, Tavares SF (2021) Materials passport’s review: challenges and opportunities toward a circular economy building sector. Built Environ Proj Asset Manag 11:767. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-02-2020-0027 10. Madaster (2020) Material passport. https://madaster.com/material-passport/. Accessed 28 Jun 2021 11. Buildings as material banks materials passports—BAMB. https://www.bamb2020.eu/topics/ materials-passports/. Accessed 28 Jun 2021 12. Honic M, Kovacic I, Rechberger H (2019) Improving the recycling potential of buildings through material passports (MP): an Austrian case study. J Clean Prod 217:787–797. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.212 13. Adisorn T, Tholen L, Götz T (2021) Towards a digital product passport fit for contributing to a circular economy. Energies 14:2289. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082289 14. Carlsson F (2020) Product data and digital tools—a key enabler for access to information. Presentation 16th November 2020—seventh meeting of the task force on access to information under the Aarhus convention 15. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and The Committee of the Regions. A new Circular Economy Action Plan For a cleaner and more competitive Europe. COM/2020/98 final. https://eur-lex. europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2020:98:FIN

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16. European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment (2020) Sustainable Products Policy Legislative Initiative, Inception impact assessment. Ares(2020)4754440. https://eurlex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=PI_COM:Ares(2020)4754440 17. Global Battery Alliance. https://www.weforum.org/global-battery-alliance. Accessed 28 Jun 2021 18. Global Battery Alliance (2020) The Global Battery Alliance battery passport. Briefing paper 19. Stanislaus M, Eckart J, Wat A. Global Battery Alliance. Overview. https://thedocs.worldbank. org/en/doc/282081605737098596-0130022020/original/MathyStanislausWEF.pdf. Accessed 28 Jun 2021

Chapter 14

Data Platforms as Tools for Circular Economy Inka Orko and Rita Lavikka

14.1

Introduction

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and other urgent environmental threats are systemic challenges and thus necessitate system-level solutions and quick actions. The linear business models of taking, making and disposing are not sustainable and further contribute to the systemic challenges. Our economy needs to adopt circular principles. In addition to the current stepwise development towards circularity in the value chains, we need solutions that are circular by design. We need a system-level view of material and value cycles to respond to systemic challenges. We need to collect and combine economic, technical, sustainability and use data to develop system understanding, carry out circularity gap analysis and eventually develop circular concepts that optimize between environmental, social, political and economic perspectives. Creating a system view is challenging because of system complexity and scoping issues. Also, the required data is siloed, scattered with many different stakeholders, in many forms and formats and not openly available. As a result, some of the data is altogether missing. We also lack the understanding of the interconnections between different data sets and aspects. Digital platforms could provide a means to collect, validate, refine and make data accessible for new circular concepts and business. Several data platforms and ecosystems for the circular economy (CE) are now emerging [1–5]. However,

I. Orko (✉) Sustainable Products and Materials, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland e-mail: inka.orko@vtt.fi R. Lavikka Smart Energy and Built Environment, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland e-mail: rita.lavikka@vtt.fi © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_14

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these platforms are still in their early stages, and their practical value and future potential for the stakeholders developing CE practices is unclear. We lack an understanding of the real-life data-related questions and pending opportunities the stakeholders are experiencing, and whether platforms could address those challenges and boost the CE. Our current study will report some practical data drivers, needs and gaps based on stakeholder interviews along the value chain and discuss the potential role of data platforms and their ecosystems as the new means of collaborative value creation. This paper will contribute to the emerging literature on data-driven CE and industrial symbiosis by suggesting that data platforms can facilitate innovation for circularity and create collaboration and business opportunities in the battery value chain, and help innovate the new paradigm for data use in CE.

14.2 14.2.1

Theoretical Background Challenges in the Adoption of Circular Economy

The CE aims to increase resource efficiency at the system level by maximizing the value of materials and products and minimizing resource use while minimizing emissions and energy leakage [6]. Specific challenges exist for the uptake of the circular economy practices, such as resistance towards change and lack of public and political pressure [7]. In addition, the private sector faces concrete, practical challenges in resource supply and product markets creation, as summarized in Table 14.1.

Table 14.1 Challenges slowing the adoption of CE [1, 8] Challenges for CE Market failure

Information failure and knowledge gaps Customer externalities

Technological externalities

Detailed description Higher transaction costs for secondary materials Lack of price information High search costs of fluctuating secondary markets Undeveloped product markets for CE or recycled products Varying secondary materials supply (quality and quantity) Lack of information on qualities of secondary material Unclear or contradictory legislative frameworks for material reuse and recycling (end-of-waste, etc.) Unawareness of substitutability Misconceptions on quality and suitability of secondary materials Risk aversion (maintain status quo) and product safety issues Bad design increases costs of recycling Missing markets of externalities (such as true prices), leading to unheeded externalities in the primary market Recyclability offers no competitive advantage Undeveloped technologies

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We note that most of the reported circular economy bottlenecks, according to [1], are essentially gaps in data or knowledge: lacking price information, lacking information of secondary materials and substitutability, and misconceptions on secondary materials’ quality and usability, also reported by Kintscher et al. [9]. These data gaps may be due to, e.g. business confidentiality reasons, scattered data sources and non-uniform data, missing data or knowledge, missing data operator or undeveloped data sharing culture. A study has shown a fragmented understanding of the role and value of data in circular business models [10]. Bocken et al. present six business models that are based on the principles of slowing or closing the loops [11]: (1) access and performance models (car-sharing), (2) extending product value (remanufacturing); (3) classic long-life models (timeless and durable designs); (4) encouraging for (resource) sufficiency (product-as-a-service models); (5) extending resource value (material recycling) and (6) industrial symbiosis, such as the well-known industrial symbiosis in Kalundborg, Denmark, since 1972; the symbiosis is based on three public and six private organizations’ partnership, where energy, water and materials are exchanged in closed loops [12]. These circular business models by Bocken et al. build on efficient data management and sharing and could potentially be supported by real-time data management. Data and digital opportunities play a role in almost all of today’s business model developments. Still, for example, in the car-sharing business or industrial symbiosis, we can even say that they cannot function without reliable data exchange between the parties and supportive data tools. Thus, data utilization plays a major role in implementing circular operations and business.

14.2.2

Data Platforms and Circular Economy

Data platforms are technological platforms that enable growth and value creation by interdependent, complementary actors. The platforms often operate via open-source technologies or shared technical standards to attract customers [13, 14]. The sharing of products is one specific use for digital platforms [15]. Platforms can be categorized into transaction platforms, innovation platforms and hybrid platforms. Transaction platforms (Uber as a well-known example) enable multi-sided markets and facilitate exchanges and transactions across both sides, the demand and supply [16]. Innovation platforms (such as Android), on the other hand, enable creation and innovation in complementary products and services by the users and complementors [13]. Finally, hybrid platforms (such as Amazon) are, on the other hand, a combination of transaction and innovation platforms, enabling both efficient, low-cost transactions and the creation of new complementary products and services. However, as the dominating platforms such as Google have locked their own technology and business practices in the platform’s core, strong platforms can also be seen as having effectively become infrastructures [17]. Such platform

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infrastructures may ease market access for startups that want to reach large market segments fast and resource efficiently. On the other hand, market access may be hindered for solutions that cannot carry the entry and transaction fees. According to Konietzko [18], online platforms may have three potential roles in the circular economy: marketing, operating and co-creating products and materials. The EU has recognized the importance of shared product data as a market mechanism to enable circularity. The EU’s Green Deal initiative has set forth electronic material or product passports to enhance recycling, new partnerships and product eco-design [19]. The first steps have been taken in the construction sector [20] and the batteries value chain, where the EU (article 65) is proposing a mandatory electronic record for each individual battery by 2026 [21]. The adoption of material or product passports requires shared terminology, rules and agreements for data use, continued collaboration across the value chain, and an access point to such information. Thus, material or product passports could be developed into hybrid platforms that enable operative actions, co-creation, and market communications. A successful platform attracts stakeholders and an ecosystem around it and generates network effects [22]. The greater the number of users, the greater the incentives for the complementors to offer complementary products and services and vice versa [23]. Platform ecosystems can be a means to enable the circular economy [1, 3, 18, 24]. Platforms facilitate and coordinate value-adding activities by the users and complementors [25]. For example, platforms as digital marketplaces can reduce information asymmetry and transaction costs related to recycling materials [1]. In the circular economy context, some transaction platforms already exist. For example, Fairmondo, promoting long-lasting products for responsible consumption, and Kleiderkreisel reselling used clothing [18]. There are also many local commercial or non-commercial material exchange platforms, such as Hesus Ltd. (construction waste management) [26] or Emmy Ltd. (digital pre-owned clothing store) [27] in Europe. Further, many websites operate as information dissemination or networking platforms, such as Circular economy data hub [28]. These platforms typically do not directly enable commercial transactions or provide concrete value co-creation tools but rather allow one-way communication. The authors see these platforms as a digital expression of conventional operations rather than a paradigm shift of new digital opportunities and value creation, leaving much of the data-based circular opportunity yet to be discovered. The material passport took a leap forward with the World Economic Forum’s Global Battery Alliance (GBA) proposal for the Battery Passport, aiming for a global solution enabling secure product information and data sharing. The target is to prove responsible and sustainable operation and use of battery materials to consumers, improve resource efficiency through the battery life cycle, and enable as-a-service business models. The data should be transparent and traceable, and over time, it should track the progress in sustainability. The Battery Passport is planned on the GBA Assurance Platform consisting of the data rules, data auditing and benchmarking [21].

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Several companies have proposed their platform solutions for traceability and, in some cases, data taxonomies for material passports for buildings, batteries, ships, clothing and electronics, including Madaster-platform [29], True Twins [30], Excess Materials Exchange platform [31], Circulor platform [32], EPEA [33] and Materials Passport Platform BAMB [34].

14.3

Data Collection and Analysis

Data and digitalization, like circular economy, present different stakeholders varied opportunities, such as public–private relationships, different business models, new positions in the value chain or branches of industry. To understand the role of data in today’s operations and to scan and eventually develop the opportunities for the future, we designed an interview program for the potential data and circular economy stakeholders. The interviews are part of an R&D project on circular data demonstration and networking (Circular Design Network, Finnish Academy 2020–2022, Finland), and the interviews were mainly carried out in the spring of 2021. In the project, we have conducted more than 80 interviews within the public sector, data management and three specific domains: the battery value chain (industrial applications/B-to-B), the textile value chain (B-to-B-to-C) and the carbon cycles in the food system. Most interviewees represented stakeholders (companies and NGOs) operating in Finland; many are subsidiaries of multinational companies or organizations operating globally. Views regarding marketing, distribution and sales operations within the battery value chain were collected from manufacturing company interviews for the battery and vehicles/tools manufacturing, and no retailers were interviewed directly. The interviewees represented mostly managers or directors in the business operations, manufacturing, corporate sustainability function or R&D functions; one IT manager was also interviewed. We now report 29 in-depth interviews in the battery value chain, with stakeholders (1) operating or potentially developing data management platforms or (2) operating in the battery value chain, including primary minerals production and refining (mining operators), metals refining, vehicle and tool design and manufacturing, R&D organizations (universities and research institutes), technology providers (processes and equipment), battery producer responsibility organizations and battery and battery metals recycling and side stream utilization organizations (Fig. 14.1). We used snowball sampling to identify the key interviewees [35]. We interviewed the stakeholders on their roles in the value chain, their data-related challenges and needs in circular practices, the role and data use in their current operations, data tools, data collaboration and the opportunities they saw in circular data. We also organized the responses according to industrial sectors and positions in the value chain. The interviews were transcribed verbatim. The two authors of this paper provided the original design of the analysis framework and were part of the team conducting the individual interviews and coding the responses. In addition, the authors

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Fig. 14.1 Interviewed battery value chain stakeholders

performed a cross-cutting assessment on the coded responses, discussed the findings, identified linkages between them and finally developed an understanding of their relevance.

14.4 14.4.1

Findings General Trends and Drivers in Data Use for Circularity

The interviewees were asked to describe the trends and drivers important for the organization in the circular economy context. In the responses, sustainability was recognized as an important driver in CE equally by all respondents in the battery value chain: non-governmental organizations (NGOs), companies, research and technology organizations (RTOs); also in different corporate positions. All the interviewed organizations saw the importance of responding to climate change and other sustainability challenges, and they saw a relationship of the said challenges to the circular economy. Most organizations had internal and/or external agendas related to CO2 emissions reduction and/or material efficiency. For some organizations, CE or material efficiency was at the core of the business (especially side stream management platforms and product-as-a-service business models). For many companies, though, the circular economy was understood as a synonym for recycling, indicating that many other circular opportunities (e.g. business model or organizational innovations) remain undiscovered. The importance of data at the general level was also recognized as a means to increase circularity. The key drivers for extending data use for circularity include

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customer demand for transparency and sustainability, and product improvements for sustainability, for example, by getting access to secondary materials through shared data. Also, compliance and sustainability reporting are strong drivers for sustainability-related data acquisition. Internally, product traceability to manage the supply chain sustainably and provide validated product information for the customers was an important driver and a way to improve the process and material efficiency. Some respondents also noted it as a trend that financiers increasingly require data on sustainability performance and prefer green investments. For the mining operators, environmental data are important for maintaining the social license to operate. The interviewees were concerned about ensuring data reliability, confidentiality and ownership when sharing data through platforms. With some public sector stakeholders, also data sustainability and fair use were seen as important trends. Especially companies operating in manufacturing consider production-related data as business-critical and are cautious about opening their data. On the other hand, public waste management operators have made efforts in opening regional data for public use.

14.4.2

Stakeholders’ Data Needs and Opportunities

14.4.2.1

Overview Through the Value Chain

The stakeholders in the battery value chain have specific data needs relating to their particular operations but also identify several new data opportunities (Fig. 14.1). The stakeholders’ data need and opportunities in various parts of the value chain are summarized in Table 14.2. Next, we will report the data need and opportunities through the battery value chain. 14.4.2.2

Raw Materials Production and Materials Processing

Within stakeholders in raw materials production and materials processing, a few data opportunities could be identified. Firstly, information on side streams location and price of available side streams is often missing or not available. This is seen mainly as a critical data need and an enabler for closing the loops and developing new materials and business. For the mine operators, a platform for tailings and side minerals data and/or trading was seen as an opportunity to reduce and utilize side streams. A digital opportunity brought up by one respondent is virtual reality (VR) aided modelling in primary materials production; although not brought up by a wider group of interviewees, VR and other modelling technologies may present unexplored opportunities in refining data into knowledge. Many interviewees saw the need for data harmonization of secondary material streams, e.g. tailings composition data and urban mining data, preferably collected in one place. Mineral deposit

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Table 14.2 Summary of the data needs and opportunities Value chain Raw materials production and materials processing

Manufacturing

Data needs Harmonized data on secondary material streams Raw materials data LCA data for concept and process design Demand management with data Database for secondary and primary materials properties and prices

Marketing, distribution and sales

Value chain data upstream and downstream Data on metal origins

Use and reuse

Customer use data

Waste management, recycling

Uniform data on material origins Battery content data attached to the unit Data for battery passports and material inventories

Reported throughout the value chain

Data opportunities Sidestream materials utilization into new products Virtual reality for ore modelling

Reduction of CO2 emissions and energy use based on real-time data Use data and R&D data combined for optimized battery structures and materials Carbon footprint Data on secondary material users and uses Carbon footprint and handprint Longer battery lifetime by collecting performance and use data Vehicle monitoring for optimized battery designs New business models for recycling based on data

Traceability and transparency Sidestream database and/or transaction platform Blockchains

data are widely seen as the basic data needed for primary production; these data are not always available but could be refined to utilization potential maps. Raw materials’ production and processing companies generally face pressure from their customers downstream to report their products’ carbon footprint and other sustainability data. 14.4.2.3

Manufacturing

In battery and vehicle design and manufacturing, the interviewed stakeholders saw an opportunity in demand management with data, leading to leaner production and business benefits. Real-time data was seen as a tool for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and energy use in manufacturing and processes. The stakeholders also saw opportunities in a database for secondary and primary materials properties and prices. Another data opportunity would be to combine use data and R&D data for optimized battery structures and materials. The vehicle and industrial equipment manufacturers saw a major opportunity in collecting use phase data for product design in the future, both for the battery and the equipment. Some manufacturers had

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active piloting ongoing in utilizing data loggers and data sharing. The interviewees also recognized the need for data for carbon footprint assessment arising from the European battery-related initiatives and the Green Deal. Some manufacturers saw data as a value-adding element in their offering for the customers. 14.4.2.4

Marketing, Distribution and Sales

Marketing, distribution and sales operate at the direct customer interface, and the data needs reflect the customer demands. According to the interviews, they benefit from value chain data upstream and downstream. Also, data for battery passports and material inventories was missing as well as data on metal origins. Several data opportunities were identified, such as data on secondary material users and use, carbon footprint and handprint and longer battery lifetime by collecting performance and use data. 14.4.2.5

Use and Reuse, Waste Management and Recycling

In the use and reuse and the waste management phase, the stakeholders lacked customer use data. The stakeholders envisioned that use data could be used to create new business models and earnings logic for reuse and recycling, e.g. using combos of gate fees and product sales. Vehicle monitoring for optimized designs was also one data opportunity. Batteries contain valuable metals that can be profitably recycled back to batteries or as other market commodities. However, the content information is not usually carried with the battery products. The respondents in recycling operations experienced inefficiencies in battery recycling relating to different unmarked battery chemistries and material contents. They further saw that introducing detailed data labels would greatly increase the recyclability of battery materials, including the information on specific battery chemistries. There is also room for improvement in digital reporting systems. 14.4.2.6

Shared Data Needs and Opportunities Through the Value Network

Stakeholders through the value chain brought up the untapped potential in refining and utilizing side streams. Currently, mining and metals refining side streams (rock material, tailings) are to a great extent stabilized and stored on-site. They have to be secured and managed with an associated cost. The stakeholders at large see a side streams platform with updated data on location, quality and quantity as a step towards utilization. Some local and generalized yearly/bi-yearly summaries are available based on voluntary entries and public data, but these data do not enable active transactions. On the other hand, ERP-type platform solutions in the market

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would enable a group of stakeholders to exchange near real-time side stream information, enabling trade. Another opportunity identified through the value chain was new business through enabling traceability. By definition, traceability requires inputs from the upstream and downstream stakeholders. However, the current practical uses were mostly seen in value chain communications and raw materials management. The battery passport initiative was recognized by many interviewees as providing a structure for traceability. Also, the EU legislative proposal to prove the use of recycled content in future battery designs was seen as a notable market and design factor in the future. One respondent called for a careful cost-benefit assessment before the implementation to understand the factual use and benefits from the collectable data. Many respondents said that standardized data and collection methods are missing through the value chain, data is not always reliable, and the sharing practices are not harmonized, making the cost of the transaction still too high. Also, many respondents did not have a clear view of data use cases, although many were familiar with the battery passport initiative.

14.5 14.5.1

Discussion Data Platforms’ Potential Role in Enabling Circular Business Models in the Battery Value Chain

Based on the interviews, there is increasing general interest in the battery value chain to adopt data as a factor in business models, practices and increasing circularity. There are a few emerging examples of data platform enabled circular businesses and practices, but overall, the vision and/or know-how for data utilization is largely missing. The role of data, the rules for data use, and the opportunities are still unclear in the field. Business confidentiality of data is a critical factor. Also, as the business cases around a CE platform are not yet obvious, it is challenging to find a business owner for a platform in the long run. It may be argued that the platform itself is a tool for ecosystem operations and that the real value lies in collaboration. The current platform initiatives, such as the battery passport [36], are designed to collect battery data upstream from the user and not include downstream use data collection. Our findings show that the market and stakeholders would benefit from use data. This data would provide benefits for the manufacturers to prolong the product life cycles, promote safe use and disposal of batteries, create circular-bydesign solutions and enable new business models. Industries that rely on data processing, finance as an example, have been fast in adopting data tools and workflows to support their business models. However, the battery value chain still lives with the physical product, the battery, and is not yet familiar with or interested in digitalization opportunities. Our results confirm some earlier findings on stakeholders’ data needs [1], such as lack of price information,

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lack of information about secondary materials and substitutability and misconceptions on secondary materials quality and usability. Implementing new business models based on data would probably speed up the development of data platforms. Some of the business models presented by Bocken [11] and supported by data would support additional business for battery value chain stakeholders. For example, the following business models, based on life-cycle data, could support the circular economy of battery business: extending product value (remanufacturing), encouraging for (resource) sufficiency (product-as-a-service models) and extending resource value (material recycling). However, as the interviewees mentioned, the transaction costs are still too high, and data platforms could offer a viable solution to solve this challenge. This would necessitate that stakeholders through the battery value chain familiarize themselves with technical data management, as platforms often demand that data is provided in a structured format, often applying APIs (application programming interfaces). However, the key action for the stakeholders is to make an effort to understand the data opportunities and incorporate data into regular business and other operations instead of externalizing data to the IT department.

14.5.2

System-Level Data Challenges

To design for circularity and sustainability in the batteries value chain, we need a solid understanding of the system-level value streams and environmental impacts. Due to data and data space complexities (ownership, confidentiality issues), few attempts have been made so far for system-level modelling. An independent not-forprofit or public expert organization could take on the task. A system view becomes more important by the day as electrification moves forward and the need for materials and solutions for energy storage and batteries grows. In the interviews, two shared agendas were identified through the value chain by different stakeholders: side stream management and implementing traceability. Both of these themes require tight collaboration in the ecosystem and through the value chain. A practical next step for these themes could be developing open-access innovation platforms by an independent organization for co-creation, tools and sharing, and linking limited-access ERP type transactions platforms offered commercially by companies as satellites to these platforms. For the innovation platforms, a public stakeholder could have ownership in the early stages, with the plan to transfer ownership to a private stakeholder once the value proposition has been validated. It should be noted that there are also legislative initiatives that will require extended data collection and use, such as the battery passport legislative proposal in the EU [36]. This proposal has requirements regarding manufacturing, e.g. the use of secondary materials in batteries, battery product labelling, and carbon footprint, all of which require data exchange along the value chain. As a discussion point,

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sustainable supply chain management can also be seen as part of business risk management in the product market. Data should be harnessed for new circular solutions design, i.e. business models and approaches that operationalize the circular design principles of closing, narrowing and slowing down the loops, both in individual business cases and at the system level. A practical example can be business models using customer data for longer product life cycles. Such data acquisition and use necessitate collaboration and cohesion in the ecosystems. Some good examples exist already, but the transformational concepts await a pioneer. Thus, rearranging circular value chains and data monetization can be seen as a challenge and an opportunity.

14.5.3

Limitations of the Study

This paper presents the first findings of a 2-year project. Some additional interviews will be carried out at a later stage of the project and will be reported then. The scope of the study was to generate an overall qualitative picture of the research field. The interviews were not evenly distributed between different parts of the value chain, and some responses may carry too much weight. At the same time, some aspects may not have emerged in discussion with an individual interviewee. Some of the interviewees operate in a broader business sector extending from the battery applications domain, and the responses may reflect this.

14.6

Conclusion

This paper highlights the data needs and opportunities experienced by the battery value chain. It discusses platforms as a tool for responding to data and development needs and supporting the circular economy of the battery value chain to address the system-level gaps. However, the study reports several data-related challenges to be solved before data platforms can truly support CE. As a new perspective, this study reports that the manufacturers lack data on the customers’ use of the batteries. Further research, development and piloting are needed to collect and bring this information to the manufacturers and connect this information to the battery passport platform. Up until now, the battery passport data have been seen especially valuable as a testimonial for sustainable use of raw materials and resources. In the next phase, we need to use the data for the circular design of batteries and related value chains. Incentives should be created for the early adopters of the battery passport and the pioneers developing data on customers’ use of batteries, potentially using the financial vehicles provided by the EU Green Deal. Further, each stakeholder needs to have a clear value proposition to make their material data accessible via a platform. Data on battery materials and use through the

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value chain is the necessary first step for moving towards the circular battery value chain. The battery passport initiative is now setting a framework for this. We propose establishing an ecosystem operating on a hybrid platform, established around co-creation and based on the battery passport data, with low entry barriers for any startups or SMEs. Data platforms alone cannot meet all the reported data needs. However, we envision that data platforms can help provide new collaboration and business opportunities in the battery value chain, and they can help innovate the new paradigm for data use in CE. Learning from data experimentation and demonstrations may be the best way forward in a complex environment, where planning for final solutions at one go may not be possible. Further, the European GAIA-X data infrastructure initiative [37] or similar initiatives may provide the required elements for creating the circular data acquisition and use framework. This study has taken the first steps towards enabling data-driven business for CE by exploring the battery value chain’s data needs and opportunities. Further empirical research should focus on the following questions: (1) What are the value-driven data use cases for circularity? (2) How do we implement practical data experiments in an agile way and learn from them? (3) Who are the stakeholders providing the data for the use cases? (4) What governance is needed to balance between data confidentiality and transparency? (5) What data-related competencies do we need to develop for data-driven business in CE? Acknowledgements This paper communicates findings from the ongoing Circular Design Network project funded by the Academy of Finland (2020–2022). The paper is based on interviews conducted by a cross-organizational team of the project partners: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Aalto University, Geological Survey of Finland, Natural Resources Institute, and Finnish Environmental Institute. The authors thank all the researchers involved for their data collection and initial data encoding efforts.

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Chapter 15

Artificial Intelligence for Process Control in Remanufacturing Chigozie Enyinna Nwankpa, Winifred Ijomah, and Anthony Gachagan

15.1

Introduction

Sustainability and sustainable habits have lately become a vital part of the discussions by climate change experts as the world plans to manage the rate of resource depletion that is currently a global challenge. Sustainability ensures that the present needs are met without impacting the ability of future generations to meet their needs [1]. Remanufacturing is crucial to meet sustainable development targets and resource efficiency. It is an end-of-life strategy that takes used products to “as new” condition or better with warranty matching the new product [2]. The role of remanufacturing in attaining sustainable production anchors on the core pillars of sustainability, including societal, economic and the environment. Researchers have outlined the primary driver of sustainability as legislation, the end-of-life directive, landfill tax, among others. These factors drive manufacturers to take responsibility for their Eol products [3]. With policymakers forcing businesses to manage their end-of-life products, enterprises are constantly exploring ways to reduce waste generation, material usage and landfill impact alongside energy consumption [4, 5]. Nevertheless, researchers have outlined that remanufacturing can become even more attractive if efficient technologies and techniques are developed to simplify the processes [6]. Several studies aiming to proffer solutions to these critical remanufacturing challenges have been published; however, most are either highly theoretical or of limited adaptability to the industry. Typical examples are the inspection and disassembly processes primarily performed manually in many remanufacturing shops [6]. To extract maximum value during remanufacturing, C. E. Nwankpa (✉) · W. Ijomah Design Manufacturing and Engineering Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected] A. Gachagan Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_15

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appropriate technologies and tools are required, especially the hybrid automation technologies, to improve the remanufacturing processes with the systematic implementation of the existing technologies still lacking [6]. The emerging digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data analytics, internet-of-things, mobile technologies, information and communication technologies, and blockchain, have found vital applications in the industrial landscape to improve industrial operations and practices [7]. However, the role of these technologies for sustainable consumption and production has become a global discussion among experts investigating environmental degradation and the role of emerging technologies, to enhance sustainable habits and maximise resource efficiency. The deep learning models among the artificial intelligence technologies is the primary focus to investigate their application in remanufacturing process control. Process control is crucial to ensure that the quality of products meets the expectations alongside achieving consistent processing quality [8]. As remanufacturing aims to return used products to as-new conditions with a warranty, the differing quality of these end-of-life products is a crucial challenge. Most importantly, to provide tools that can automatically assess these products’ conditions with ease. Novel technologies have been developed to automate various remanufacturing processes, namely disassembly, cleaning, inspection, sorting, reconditioning and testing, to improve process efficiency. However, most of these technologies cannot handle substantial quantities of process data, making the traditional methods requiring prior knowledge of the systems impractical [9]. Conversely, deep learning (DL) models are computational models useful for learning hierarchical patterns in data. They adapt artificial neural networks alongside other tuning parameters to obtain insight from the data. DL is a subfield of machine learning, a learning algorithm of artificial intelligence that thrives on extensive data. It has become the state-of-the-art technology across various successful applications, including classification, object tracking, object detection and localisation, recognition, machine translation, pose estimation, action recognition, scene labelling, speech and natural language processing [10, 11]. However, remanufacturing has witnessed limited applications of deep learning models for making valuable predictions about end-of-life products, either to remanufacture, replace, recycle, dispose or even control the remanufacturing process. This study investigates the use of deep neural networks as a tool for predicting post-cleaning product surface conditions of the automotive torque converter system components, alongside the control of the pressure drying system.

15.2

Process Control Technologies in Remanufacturing

Emerging technologies generally unlock the potentials of various technologies to achieve end-to-end digitisation of physical assets. Industry 4.0, which represents the fourth industrial revolution, is increasingly enabling the use of data to create higher value and customer benefits by connecting resources, products and organisations

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alongside enhancing availability [12]. Nevertheless, process control technologies are a vital aspect of the industrial revolution, which can improve remanufacturing. Basically, there are two forms of process control, namely the model-driven (firstprinciple models) and data-driven models [13, 14]. The model-driven controls describe the chemical and physical background of a process. It uses the ideal steady-state of the process in model development [14]. In contrast, the software controls use computational models alongside the recorded process data to reflect real-time conditions. These different approaches provide various benefits depending on the application. However, in industry 4.0, process automation has gained wider acceptance, as more and more sensors and actuators installed in the plants gather process information, thereby generating much more process data [9]. As more and more data are obtained from the processes, developing technologies that can use these data to make insightful decisions has become paramount. These technologies for process control include the proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers, multivariate statistical analysis techniques and most recently, the model-data integrated techniques [9]. The PID controllers are the earliest and most successful technology for processdata based industrial applications. It uses quantitative measurement techniques where the input–output measurements from the plant alongside controller parameters are adapted to achieve process control [9]. These process variables are used as feedback to determine product quality rather than the product itself. This approach makes the PID controls particularly useful for most manufacturing applications. However, the online measurement of vital process variables and product quality has been identified as a significant limitation of this control method due to their economic and technical limitations [13], making the PID control unsuitable in remanufacturing applications. Moreover, statistical control represents another process control method that depends on product usage data. These process data are described as data-rich but information poor [15]. In such a scenario, researchers have suggested that latent variables are suitable for characterising low-dimensional subspaces. Principal component regression and partial least squares are the most popular techniques for managing industrial data correlations [13]. However, these approaches are limited, especially as vast amounts of data are required for proper generalisation. Although, they can also provide considerable benefits to remanufacturing at the core collection stage where the product use data are helpful to determine the remaining useful life of the product before accepting the cores for remanufacturing. Nevertheless, the product usage data are not inherently available in remanufacturing [16], thereby limiting the use of these statistical techniques to track and adequately analyse the sensor measurements over time. However, it finds more useful applications in the manufacturing sector. The data-driven measurement approach uses historical measurements of process variables to achieve control. These data-driven techniques, often referred to as soft sensors in literature finds practical applications in processes with massive historical data that can be used to model the soft sensor. Deep learning algorithms have become the favoured method of modelling data-driven control systems, with

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applications in crude distillation [13], bioprocess fermentation [17] and other industrial cases. Perhaps, as the process data from the connected sensors increases due to the everincreasing need to enhance the monitoring and control of processes and systems, better techniques of making more informed decisions using the process data become inevitable. Exploring the methods for using the process data for process control involves developing and deploying computational models that can process these data to make insightful decisions. Soft sensors have witnessed applications in process monitoring, fault detection and online prediction [14]. However, remanufacturing processes have seen both the hardware and software control system used for automating the laser remanufacturing process, with the application having the piezoelectric sensors, infrared thermometers and a PID controller used in the design [18]. The use of a standalone soft sensor application is not yet documented for remanufacturing processes; therefore, exploring this alternative qualitative control for industrial remanufacturing application is investigated. This software control was achieved using the deep convolutional neural network models and visual sensors used to record images from the process under investigation.

15.3

Problem Description/Formulation

The soft sensor process control application for remanufacturing is modelled as a supervised classification problem. First, we consider the online post-cleaning inspection where the camera was used to record the images of the components on a conveyor after cleaning. Two part categories were recorded and used to create a dataset of two distinct characteristics, “clean dry” and “clean wet” parts. The data are used to train the convolutional neural network model for recognising the clean dry and clean wet parts. The clean and wet class is afterwards used to control and activate the pressure pump to dry the damp parts before they are passed on for remanufacturing. The process involves capturing the input data into layers of abstraction using the learning model, with the magnitude of the weights and the connections of the individual elements of the architecture determining how the features are learned. The training involves automatic modification of the weights according to the specified learning rules through backpropagation until the model achieves a satisfactory accuracy. These sequences of layers are helpful for mapping higher-level feature vectors from raw input images to the output layers [19], often referred to as the architecture of the model. These architectures of a deep neural network model are the arrangement of computational units and parameters cascaded together to highlight the flow of signals from the models’ input to the output. The various architectures of deep learning models include deep belief networks [20], recurrent neural networks [21], deep autoencoders [22] and convolutional neural networks [23]. These architectures

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have unique properties that are highly related to the type of data they work on. For example, deep belief networks are helpful to describe statistical models and techniques, represented as sets of variables and their conditional dependencies [20, 24]. Also, the deep autoencoders are primarily helpful to copy specific inputs to outputs [22, 25]. Nevertheless, recurrent neural networks are used in modelling sequential data [11, 21], as well as the convolutional neural networks for modelling recognition and classification problems because they perform excellently on processing grid of values [23, 26].

15.4

Convolutional Neural Networks

The convolutional neural networks, also known as ConvNets, are specialised neural networks that are most useful for processing grid-like data. The components of a CNN include the input, convolutional, pooling, activation, fully connected, output layers [23]. Generally, convolution applies filters over an image through the process of dot product [26]. Furthermore, these CNNs make explicit assumptions that the inputs have girds-like topology, like time series and image data, which comes in forms of one-dimensional and two-dimensional samples grid of pixels. The CNN’s are useful for understanding contents in images with their weight sharing property, providing the advantage of reduced model complexity and faster training. Also, the individual neurons in the feature map are mapped directly to the region of neighbouring neurons of the preceding layers, with new feature maps obtained by convolving the kernel and the inputs alongside the application of element-wise activation function at the output. The feature value at point (i, j) in the k feature map of the lth layer is given by [10]. T

Z li,j,k = wlk xli,j þ blk

ð15:1Þ

where xli,j is the input patch centred at location (i, j) of the lth layer, wlk and blk are the weight vector and bias terms of the k filter of the lth layer, respectively. However, the activation functions are functions used to convert the linear output of the models to nonlinear for further processing, thereby enhancing the model feature detection and improved performance [27]. If we denote the activation function as α, then the output Ot becomes Ot = α Z ii,j,k

ð15:2Þ

Conversely, the pooling Layer reduces the computational burden of the model by reducing the number of connections between the convolutional layers. It also introduces translation invariance in the images, thereby enhancing model performance and generalisation. Different pooling methods include stochastic, max,

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average and mixed [10]. The fully connected layers are the final layers used to deduct the reasoning of the model. These deductions are made from the features learned by the convolutional and pooling layers to achieve high-level logic by the neural network [28, 29]. Nevertheless, numerous architectures of the deep CNN helpful in image recognition include the first image recognition architecture, LeNet [30]. Other architectures followed with AlexNet winning the ImageNet competition, thereby highlighting the advancing recognition capabilities of the CNN [28]. The GoogleNet [31] and VGGNet also improved recognition accuracy until the ResNet architecture surpassed human-level recognition accuracy, suggesting that the CNN have advanced to work on almost any real-world application [32]. Notable architectural design advancement is the depth of the network, which has continued to increase after LeNet, which had just five layers, with subsequent designs reaching above a thousand layers in depth [32]. Conversely, for a system of n-dimensional inputs X, the layers—l, weights—W, and biases—b are given by [33]

X=

x1 x2 ⋮ xn

,

W=

w11 w21

w12 w22

... ...

w1n w2n

⋮

⋱

⋮

⋮

wl1

wl2

...

wln

,

b=

b1 b2 ⋮

ð15:3Þ

bn

The output of the respective layers is obtained by computing the dot product of the weights and inputs, with the model fitting bias term as follows y½1] = α½1]

W ½1]T : X þ b½1]

ð15:4Þ

where y[1] is the output of the first layer, α[1] is the layer one activation function, W[1] and b[1] are the weight and bias coefficients of the layer. Conversely, for an n-depth architecture, the parameters of the model output are represented as y=α

W ½n]T : yn - 1 þ b½n]

ð15:5Þ

The typical CNN architecture showing the respective layers of the model is depicted in Fig. 15.1, showing the connections from a six input system, the bias terms, two hidden layers having four, and two separate neural connections and one output layer for an image recognition problem. These units are helpful to learn the features from data and useful to obtain a deep learning-based model for process control in remanufacturing.

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Fig. 15.1 Typical CNN architecture for image recognition

15.5

Artificial Intelligence in Process Control

The application of deep learning in process control is a soft sensor control that considers the case study of the torque converter (TC) casing cleaning process, with the design being an automated model to achieve automated control during remanufacturing, using a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) model. The application of DCNN in remanufacturing is a new approach to automating specific remanufacturing processes using neural network models, with the use of these neural network models finding application in remanufacturing inspection modelling [34], sorting applications [35, 36], among other vital applications. The developed model will act as an automated process controller during the cleaning process. To accurately model remanufacturing cleaning process control, the TC casings were classified to differentiate their conditions as “with” or “without” water deposits. This post-cleaning inspection is captured by the connected camera, which records video of samples. These videos are afterwards converted to images and used to train the model before the predictions. Finally, the predictions are one-hot encoded “to activate” as 1 or “not activate” as 0, and used to control the pressure drying process through an actuator.

15.5.1 Model Design Approach The use of the AI model for process control in remanufacturing involves four critical stages of activities, including the presentation of the component, achieved using a conveyor system. Second, examining the part to ascertain the conforming features is achieved by recording videos of the sample using a connected camera. Third, the decision on the component is a binary decision to accept the condition as dry or not, achieved using a CNN model. Finally, the action depends on whether to activate the pressurised pump or not, obtainable through an actuator (decision) (Fig. 15.2). The model design and implementation use the Python programming language, which offers an open-source rich library that enables a more straightforward design implementation. A convolutional neural network architecture inspired by the VggNet [37] is developed and used to achieve the design. The VggNet is a deep convolutional neural network architecture that focuses on the depth of the CNN to achieve improved prediction accuracy. It has multiple 3 × 3 convolutional filters stacked together before a max-pooling layer, which allows the model to learn rich

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Fig. 15.2 AI-based system approach for process control

Action

Presentation

Decision

Examination

features in the convolutional layers before downsampling. The batch normalisation layer is also added to reduce the effect of overfitting during training alongside dropout, which reduces the computational burden of the model. The overall architecture consists of four (4) convolutional layers, coupled with a ReLU activation function, batch normalisation and dropout layers, alongside 4096 fully connected layers and a softmax output. This architecture was empirically developed and tweaked until a very high accuracy was obtained on the data used in this investigation.

15.5.2

Datasets

The dataset of the TC housing used for the investigation are samples of TC units for remanufacturing are recorded after the cleaning operation to collect samples of components with and without water droplets after cleaning. The TC video samples were recorded at Machie Transmission Limited Glasgow UK and trained a deep CNN model. A total of eight video samples were recorded and converted to images for the model’s training during the pre-processing stage. Five (5) of these TC components are dry samples (DSX), with the other three (3) as wet samples described as (WaterX). A total of thirty-three thousand five hundred and three (33,503) images were obtained and split at 80% and 20% training and test samples, respectively.

15.5.3

Model Training

The training of the model involves propagating gradients in the forward and backward passes. In the forward pass, the inputs are propagated through a series of dot products and activations to obtain the output. In contrast, the backwards pass

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involves computing the loss gradient at the output layer and using the gradient to recursively apply chain-rule to update the models’ weights [38]. There are basically two training methods, including training from scratch and the transfer learning approach. The enormous weight bottleneck of most highperforming CNN models makes transfer learning unsuitable for a small application. The use of smaller computational models suitable for the task becomes a reasonable approach, requiring developing a computational model and training from scratch. The training process involves using CNN to extract the features from the datasets. The hyperparameters include the number of epochs set to 40, the learning rate of 0.04, batch size of 32, alongside the use of stochastic gradient descent optimiser, categorical cross-entropy loss function for multi-class classification, and a softmax output, to achieve a deep convolutional neural network model. These parameters of the model were set and optimised empirically.

15.6

Model Evaluation and Results

The training results outlined in Fig. 15.3 highlight that the model was successfully trained and obtained very high training and validation accuracies, reaching 99.9% in recognising and classifying the different classes of objects presented. Furthermore,

Fig. 15.3 Model training accuracy results

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Fig. 15.4 Model training loss results

from Fig. 15.4, the consistent drop in the training and validation losses attests that the model performed excellent predictions during the training. The model testing assesses the ability to recognise and isolate parts belonging to different classes. The accuracy metric was used, which represents the total number of correct predictions compared to the total predictions given by [35]. Accuracy =

total correct prediction TP þ TN = total predictions TP þ FP þ TN þ FN

ð15:6Þ

where TP = true positive, TN = true negative, FP = false-positive, FN = false negative. These individual parameters independently help to visualise the models’ performance on specific predictions when troubleshooting. The testing involves two stages which include testing with test samples alongside other isolated unseen individual components using the model serialised weights. The model evaluation uses the test set to predict the performance of the model. A confusion matrix, which is a table that details the performance of a classifier, shows that the model classified all the 6700 test samples correctly, as shown in Fig. 15.5. The test data evaluation highlights that the model could effectively predict when non-dry components are leaving the cleaning chamber. The results are afterwards

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Fig. 15.5 Confusion matrix showing test results

Fig. 15.6 Sample model predictions

used to control the post-cleaning process. A sample video feed prediction of the model is shown (Fig. 15.6). The results highlight that the deep convolutional neural networks can effectively trigger the pressure pump to activate and dry the component during remanufacturing, thereby fulfilling the process control role.

15.7 Conclusion The research outlines deep neural networks as a novel approach to achieving process control in remanufacturing. The torque converter remanufacturing post-cleaning inspection case study was used to evaluate the concept’s suitability to perform a low-cost online process inspection and control in remanufacturing. The deep

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learning-based approach offers a cheaper option to automate processes, especially the automated post-cleaning inspection, thereby enhancing the process, thereby becoming a vital technology to address critical automation challenges in the remanufacturing industry. Perhaps, the deep learning technology has some huge potentials as a method that could surpass the current technologies, mainly cost, speed and accuracy of prediction. This study demonstrates that deep neural networks as soft sensors systems can revolutionise process control during the remanufacturing cleaning and inspection and offer valuable insight into the opportunities for future applications of deep learning algorithms to remanufacturing. With the right technologies and tools, vital remanufacturing challenges could be simplified, thereby enhancing process efficiency.

References 1. Gehin A, Zwolinski P, Brissaud D (2008) A tool to implement sustainable end-of-life strategies in the product development phase. J Clean Prod 16(5):566–576 2. Paterson DAPP, Ijomah WL, Windmill JFCC (2017) End-of-life decision tool with emphasis on remanufacturing. J Clean Prod 148:653–664 3. Matsumoto M, Ijomah W (2013) Remanufacturing. In: Kauffman J, Lee K-M (eds) Handbook of sustainable engineering. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 389–408 4. Lahrour Y, Brissaud D (2018) A technical assessment of product/component re-manufacturability for additive remanufacturing. Procedia CIRP 69:142–147 5. Subramoniam R, Huisingh D, Chinnam RB (2009) Remanufacturing for the automotive aftermarket-strategic factors: literature review and future research needs. J Clean Prod 17(13): 1163–1174 6. Tolio T et al (2017) Design, management and control of demanufacturing and remanufacturing systems. CIRP Ann Manuf Technol 66(2):585–609 7. Feroz AK, Zo H, Chiravuri A (2021) Digital transformation and environmental sustainability: a review and research agenda. Sustainability 13(3):1–20 8. Hu D, Kovacevic R (2003) Sensing, modeling and control for laser-based additive manufacturing. Int J Mach Tools Manuf 43(1):51–60 9. Yin S, Li X, Gao H, Kaynak O (2015) Data-based techniques focused on modern industry: an overview. IEEE Trans Ind Electron 62(1):657–667 10. Gu J et al (2017) Recent advances in convolutional neural networks. Pattern Recognit 11. LeCun Y, Bengio Y, Hinton G (2015) Deep learning. Nature 521(7553):436–444 12. Peraković D, Periša M, Zorić P (2020) Challenges and issues of ICT in industry 4.0. In: Lecture notes in mechanical engineering. Pleiades Publishing, pp 259–269 13. Shang C, Yang F, Huang D, Lyu W (2014) Data-driven soft sensor development based on deep learning technique. J Process Control 24(3):223–233 14. Kadlec P, Gabrys B, Strandt S (2009) Data-driven soft sensors in the process industry. Comput Chem Eng 33(4):795–814 15. Dong D, McAvoy TJ (1996) Nonlinear principal component analysis—based on principal curves and neural networks. Comput Chem Eng 20(1):65–78 16. Butzer S, Kemp D, Steinhilper R, Schötz S (2017) Identification of approaches for remanufacturing 4.0. In: 2016 IEEE European technology and engineering management summit, E-TEMS 2016, pp 1–6

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17. Gopakumar V, Tiwari S, Rahman I (2018) A deep learning based data driven soft sensor for bioprocesses. Biochem Eng J 136:28–39 18. Hu XD, Kong FZ, Yao JH (2011) Development of monitoring and control system for laser remanufacturing. Appl Mech Mater 44–47:81–85 19. M. Mishraa, J. Nayakb, B. Naikc, and A. Abraham, "Deep learning in electrical utility industry: a comprehensive review of a decade of research." 2020. 20. Neal RM (1992) Connectionist learning of belief networks. Artif Intell 56(1):71–113 21. Elman JL (1990) Finding structure in time. Cogn Sci 14(2):179–211 22. Weng R, Lu J, Tan Y-P, Zhou J (2016) Learning cascaded deep auto-encoder networks for face alignment. IEEE Trans Multimed 18(10):2066–2078 23. Goodfellow I, Bengio Y, Courville A (2017) Deep learning. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 24. Hinton GE, Osindero S, Teh Y-W (2006) A fast learning algorithm for deep belief nets. Neural Comput 18(7):1527–1554 25. Sun M, Zhang X, Van Hamme H, Zheng TF (2016) Unseen noise estimation using separable deep auto encoder for speech enhancement. IEEE/ACM Trans Audio Speech Lang Process 24(1):93–104 26. Ponce J, Forsyth D (2012) Computer vision—a modern approach, 2nd edn. Pearson Higher Education 27. Nwankpa CE, Ijomah W, Gachagan A, Marshall S (2020) Activation functions: comparison of trends in practice and research for deep learning. In: 2nd International conference on computational sciences and technologies (INCCST 20), pp 124–133 28. Krizhevsky A, Sutskever I, Hinton GE (2012) ImageNet classification with deep convolutional neural networks. Adv Neural Inf Process Syst 25 29. Zeiler MD, Fergus R (2014) Visualising and understanding convolutional networks. In: Lecture notes in computer science (including subseries lecture notes in artificial intelligence and lecture notes in bioinformatics), vol 8689 LNCS, no. PART 1, pp 818–833 30. Le Cun Y et al (1989) Handwritten digit recognition: applications of neural network chips and automatic learning. IEEE Commun Mag 27(11):41–46 31. Szegedy C et al (2015) Going deeper with convolutions. In: 2015 IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR), pp 1–9 32. He K, Zhang X, Ren S, Sun J (2015) Delving deep into rectifiers: surpassing human-level performance on ImageNet classification. In: 2015 IEEE international conference on computer vision (ICCV), pp 1026–1034 33. Nwankpa CE (2020) Advances in optimisation algorithms and techniques for deep learning. Adv Sci Technol Eng Syst J 5(5):563–577 34. Nwankpa C, Eze S, Ijomah W, Gachagan A, Marshall S (2020) Achieving remanufacturing inspection using deep learning. J Remanuf 35. Nwankpa C, Eze S, Ijomah WL (2020) Deep learning based visual automated sorting system for remanufacturing. In: 2020 IEEE green technologies conference (GreenTech), pp 196–198 36. Schlüter M, Niebuhr C, Lehr J, Krüger J (2018) Vision-based identification service for remanufacturing sorting. Procedia Manuf 21:384–391 37. Simonyan K, Zisserman A (2015) Very deep convolutional networks for large-scale image recognition. ICLR 38. Rosebrock A (2018) Deep learning for computer vision with python, 2nd edn. PyImageSearch

Chapter 16

Machine Recognition of ICs in Recycling Process of Small-Sized Electronics Zizhen Liu and Nozomu Mishima

16.1

Introduction

Modern society is filled with many electronic devices. In particular, personal computers and televisions are used in almost every home, and with the advent of the Internet, many people own mobile devices such as smartphones and cellphones. In Japan, the number of mobile devices owned by individuals has been increasing every year from 2014 to 2017 shown in Fig. 16.1 [1]. It means that such a large number of small electronic devices are used and most of them will be disposed of at the same time. Therefore, the recycling of used small electronic devices has become an important issue. In Japan, the “Regulation for Enforcement of the Act on Promotion of Recycling of Small Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” started to be enforced in April 2013, and the collection and recycling of small household appliances including small electronic devices by certified companies and local governments has started. The amount of small household appliances collected and recycled has been increasing year by year. Since the recycling process usually consists of multi-steps like Fig. 16.2 [2], the profitability of small household appliances recycling is affected by the costs of sorting, transportation, labor, and metal prices [3].

Z. Liu (✉) · N. Mishima Graduate School of Engineering Science, Akita University, Akita, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_16

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Fig. 16.1 Increase of mobile devices

Fig. 16.2 Intermediate process of recycling

16.2 Previous Proposal and Remote Recycling 16.2.1 Concept Proposal In the current intermediate process of small household appliances recycling, the cost of manual dismantling is high. When converting the value of rare metals that can be recovered from used mobile phones, the maximum value per unit is about 220 yen

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Table 16.1 Estimated time for dismantling Item Mobile phone Home video game console Handheld game console Portable CD Player Digital audio player Digital camera Car navigation Video camera DVD player

Table 16.2 Money wage rate of recycling activities

Dismantling goal To printed circuit board To specific parts To printed circuit board To printed circuit board To specific parts To printed circuit board To printed circuit board To specific parts To printed circuit board To specific parts To printed circuit board To specific parts To printed circuit board To printed circuit board To specific parts

Worker Regular employee Non-regular employee

Dismantling time (min) 3.3 4.9 8.5 1.3 1.9 1.5 1.5 2.3 4.3 6.5 3.5 5.3 3.5 3.5 5.3

Money wage rate(yen/h) 1.825 1.007

[4]. According to the estimation of dismantling time and money wage rate in intermediate processing company as given in Tables 16.1 and 16.2 (Original data from [5]), the cost of manual dismantling of printed circuit board is estimated to reach 1/4 to 1/2 of the recoverable value per unit. Furthermore, costs will be higher due to other works besides manual dismantling. In the recycling of small household appliances, unlike the recycling of home appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines, recycling fee is not collected. Therefore, the recycling process must be profitable. The total cost should not exceed the value which will be recovered from rare and precious metals. In order to reduce the recycling cost, it is necessary to introduce a new technology to the intermediate recycling process of small household appliances.

16.2.2

Problems in Remote Recycling

Mishima et al. [6] proposed the concept of “remote recycling” as a method to reduce recycling costs, as shown in Fig. 16.3. In remote recycling, small household appliances, such as mobile phones, are crushed and then separated remotely into valuable particles and non-valuable particles by visual discrimination using a web camera. This operation can be done in areas with low labor costs. However, some

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Fig. 16.3 Schematic image of remote recycling

experiences and knowledge will be required for separating, and there might occur wrong operation caused by video delay. Thus, some improvements are necessary still.

16.3 16.3.1

Improved Way of Automated Recycling Application of AI to Parts Recognition

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been attracting attention in image recognition. The algorithm that supports deep learning is convolutional neural network (CNN) [7]. CNN has been shown to be useful for image classification and handwritten letter recognition [8, 9]. There is a previous study discussed the possibility of automation in the printed circuit board (PCB) mounting using CNN-based image recognition, since it is significant to reduce the labor cost in the assembly process. It is based on recognition of the surface mount devices (SMDs), and the system must automatically recognize the type of electronic components. However, when SMDs are mounted on a PCB using a SMT (surface mount technology), very high-precision mounting is required. In addition, tens of thousands of training samples are required for CNN-based image recognition. Therefore, the study concluded that deployment of another algorithm except CNN [10] is necessary.

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Application to Recycling

As it was described in the previous section, it is difficult to deploy CNN-based image recognition in the PCB manufacturing [10]. However, there is a possibility of using CNN-based image recognition in the recycling of small household appliances. In the PCB manufacturing, if misrecognition happens, defective products would be generated and result in losses for the producer. Contrarily, in the recycling process, since it is practically sufficient to obtain a sorting accuracy of 90% or more, a high-precision function is not required. Even if misrecognition occurs, it will not cause high losses to the intermediate recycling company. The challenge is rather to achieve a sufficient accuracy at low cost in the practical recycling field, where the environment such as lighting, part size, angle of vision, etc. may vary, unlike in the manufacturing field. Therefore, instead of the visual discrimination by the operator in the aforementioned remote recycling, a method that deploys machine recognition by CNN-based image recognition to separate crushed products into valuable particles (ICs) and non-valuable particles (plastics) is proposed in this study. In this way, it would be possible to reduce the labor cost of manual dismantling to zero in the intermediate process of small home appliance recycling.

16.4 16.4.1

Hardware Settings and Data Preparation Environment for Machine Recognition

In this study, a workstation (DELL Precision7820Tower) is used to create the virtual environment (Table 16.3) and the program. The smartphone is selected based on effectiveness, availability, and usability to take photos of PCBs and plastic parts with a white background. About software, photos of PCBs and plastic parts taken by smartphone are processed by Adobe Photoshop (raster graphics editor). The image processing includes trimming, splitting, resizing, and creating new IC images.

Table 16.3 Environment for constructing the AI

Package Python CUDA Toolkit cuDNN TensorFlow-gpu

Version 3.7 10.1 7.6 2.10

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Preparation of the Dataset (5000) for Machine Learning

Samples of the collected photos including 396 photos of PCBs and 364 photos of plastic parts are shown in Figs. 16.4 and 16.5. There are two or three photographs from the same object by changing shooting angle, brightness, and so on. Photos of IC were extracted from whole PCB photos by trimming as shown in Fig. 16.6. IC images of various package types were collected, and a total of 2505 IC images were extracted from the 396 photos of PCB. Then, since the pixels of the extracted 2505 images were different, the images were resized to 32 × 32 pixels and converted to the JPG format. The image extraction method for plastics images was different from that of ICs. By image splitting using Adobe Photoshop, a large number of plastic images can be extracted from 364 photos of plastic parts. However, since the background Fig. 16.4 Sample photos of dismantled PCB

Fig. 16.5 Sample photos of various plastic parts

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Fig. 16.6 Sample photo of a printed circuit board

Fig. 16.7 Data preparation for plastics images

(blank space) around the subject existed in the collected photos of plastic parts, it would lead to outputting invalid images such as images of background only, when image splitting is carried out. Therefore, 364 photos of plastic parts were trimmed at first, then, split. In case, invalid images are included in the images produced by image splitting, those invalid images will be deleted. Figure 16.7 shows an example of plastics images extracted by this method. A total of 4514 plastics images were extracted from 364 photos of plastic parts. Due to size difference of extracted plastics images, these images were resized to 32 × 32 pixels and converted to the JPG format. In order to create a dataset for recognition between the IC images and plastic images, 2500 ICs images and 2500 plastics images were selected from the processed

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images. The label of the IC images was defined as 1, and the label of the plastics images was defined as 0. In this study, the selected data was divided into training data and test data at the 80/20 ratio.

16.4.3

Dataset Improvement

The real fragments of used small household appliances are not only complete, but also randomly broken. However, it is almost impossible to collect sufficient broken IC photos for dataset. Therefore, broken IC images are created using Adobe Photoshop, which has become the industry standard in raster graphics editing. According to the shape of the broken ICs obtained from crushed mobile phone in this laboratory, ten types of patterns of broken ICs were created. A total of 300 broken IC images are created based on the ten patterns. Figure 16.8 shows the ten types of patterns of broken IC and an example of broken IC images corresponding to each pattern. Regarding the ten patterns, it is supposed that the missing part due to crushing occupies 25–50% of the original image.

Fig. 16.8 Fragment patterns of IC

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Table 16.4 Composition of improved dataset

Training data

Test data

Item Unbroken IC images Broken IC images Plastics images Unbroken IC images Broken IC images Plastics images

Label 1 1 0 1 1 0

225 Quantity 2000 240 2240 500 60 560

Adding the 300 broken IC images and 300 new plastic images (other than the plastics images used into the dataset with 5000 images) to dataset with 5000 images, we prepare the other dataset which includes 5600 images. The label of the IC images including both unbroken IC images and broken IC images was defined as 1, and the label of the plastic images was defined as 0. The selected data was divided into training data and test data at the 80/20 ratio. This improved dataset was named dataset (5600). The composition of improved dataset are given in Table 16.4.

16.5 16.5.1

Training Results Structure of CNN and Hyperparameter Settings

The capability of CNN is related to parameters and local architecture structure [8]. In recent years, famous CNN architectures become deeper and various [8, 11]. In considering the future work in this study, more capability of CNN will be required and ResNet can be built deeply. Due to ResNet’s special architecture such as residual block [11]. Therefore, ResNet18 [11] is employed in this work. It is necessary to set various hyperparameters when start to train built AI. Hyperparameters are parameters that humans must determine in advance, unlike the parameters of weight w and bias b that update itself during training. The hyperparameters set and adjusted in this study are batch size, epoch, learning rate to find a finishing point of AI’s training. It should be emphasized that learning rate mentioned above in this study is the learning rate of Adam optimization algorithm in fact. To evaluate the training effect, training accuracy and validation accuracy are used. Training accuracy is the amount of correct classifications divided by the total amount of classifications for training data. Validation accuracy is the amount of correct classifications divided by the total amount of classifications for validation data which have not been learnt by AI.

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Training by the Dataset (5000)

After several rounds of hyperparameter adjustment, the batch size, epoch, learning rate was adjusted to 128, 25, 0.00001, respectively, and the result of training by dataset (5000) is shown in Fig. 16.9. According to training results, overfitting did not occur and the validation accuracy increased to 0.95 approximately. Therefore, the training by dataset (5000) was completed and this model was saved as model 1 used in classification experiment in the following section.

16.5.3

Training by the Dataset (5600)

As same as the first training, the batch size, epoch, learning rate was finally adjusted to 128, 20, 0.00001, respectively, and the result of training by dataset (5600) is shown in Fig. 16.10. According to training results, overfitting did not occur and the validation accuracy increased to 0.95 approximately. The training by dataset (5600) was completed and saved as model 2 to be used for the classification test in the following section.

Fig. 16.9 The training result using the first dataset

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Fig. 16.10 The training result using the improved dataset

16.6 16.6.1

Classification Test Results Process of the Classification Test

In this experiment, a practical mobile phone was crushed by a crusher and images of this mobile phone fragments were collected as shown in Fig. 16.11. The small-sized Electronics crusher is the HO-300 series manufactured by Oshigane Co., Ltd [12]. Among the crushed fragments, 40 fragment images were used for the classification test. It contains 6 IC fragment images and 34 plastic fragment images. Among them, 0.JPG, 1.JPG, 2.JPG, 3.JPG, 4.JPG, and 5.JPG are IC fragment images, the others are plastic fragment images. Figure 16.12 shows some of the 40 images used for the classification test.

16.6.2

Results of the Classification Test

In this study, the answer of AI is the label of the image in the classification experiment. Label 1 means that this is an IC image, and label 0 means that this a plastic image. In the classification test by model 1, the answer was 90% correct,

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Fig. 16.11 Crushed mobile phone fragments

which is a relatively high correct answer rate. Among 40 fragment images, the accuracy for classifying 34 images of plastic fragments was 97.2%, One plastic fragment image was misrecognized as an IC fragment image. However, the accuracy for classifying six images of IC fragments was 50%, due to three misrecognitions of IC fragment images to plastics. Therefore, the AI of model 1 does not seem to have sufficient classification ability for IC fragment images. In the classification experiment by model 2, the answer was 92.5% correct, which was higher than model 1. Specifically, the accuracy for classifying 34 images of plastic fragments was 97.2%, due to one plastic fragments image misrecognized, and the accuracy for classifying six images of IC fragments was 66.7%, due to two IC fragments

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Fig. 16.12 Examples of the fragment photos used for the classification test

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misrecognition Compared with the model 1, model 2 have higher classification ability for IC fragment images. According to the results of the classification tests, both model 1 and model 2 have high classification ability for plastic fragment images. No overfitting of plastics images has not been observed during the training, and AI can obtain a general performance to recognize plastic fragment images. Regarding the classification ability for IC fragment images, expansion of the dataset by adding images of broken ICs can improve generalization performance for IC fragment images. However, a broken IC fragment was misrecognized by both models. This misrecognition occurred due to the imbalance between 2500 unbroken IC images and 300 broken IC images in the dataset (5600). This imbalance leads to overfitting of broken IC fragment images and causes generalization performance loss. Finally, in these two datasets, all the IC images created or collected from complete ICs mounted on a PCB. However, among six images of IC fragments for classification test, three images have complete IC part, but the shapes of the surrounding PCB are irregular. One image is broken and fallen off from the PCB. Two images have complete IC parts, but they also fell off from the PCB. Therefore, we consider that although model 1 and model 2 was not capable enough to classify IC fragment images for practical applications, they have certain generalization performances for IC fragment images.

16.6.3

Supplementary Test

In the previous section, four fragment images were misrecognized by the model 1 and 3 fragments images were misrecognized by the model 2. In order to examine the existence of variation impacting on result of classification test, five new fragment images (Fig. 16.13) were collected by changing photographing angle, brightness and

Fig. 16.13 Five fragment images misrecognized and five new fragment images

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Machine Recognition of ICs in Recycling Process of Small-Sized Electronics

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Table 16.5 Comparison of two classification tests Model 1

Model 2

Answer 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

True/False False True True True True False True False True True

Comparison with the first classification test False → False False → True False → True False → True True → True True → False False → True False → False True → True False → True

so on from five images misrecognized by model 1 and model 2. The results of supplementary test are given in Table 16.5.

16.7

Summary

As a method to reduce the cost in recycling process of small-sized electronics, the paper proposed and implemented the image recognition based on CNN to distinguish between high value pieces and low value pieces. In order to show the feasibility of CNN-based image recognition in intermediate recycling process, two datasets were prepared and training of ResNet18 CNN was carried out. Finally, model 1 trained by dataset (5000) and model 2 trained by dataset (5600) were earned and classification tests are respectively carried out by them. The result indicated that model 2 has a better classification ability for IC fragment images than model 1. In addition, both model 1 and model 2 have high classification ability, and the accuracy for plastic fragment images reached 97.2%. Therefore, it was found that the generalization performance of IC fragment images can be improved by adding new IC images to the dataset. In addition, image splitting is an efficient method to capture plastic part images and the result of the classification test has shown this method’s effectiveness. However, the accuracies in classifying IC fragment images were, respectively, 50% and 66.7% by model 1 and model 2. These accuracies were not sufficient enough to classify ICs for a practical application in recycling process. Then, the results of additional test indicated that giving variations to the dataset affects the classification capability greatly. The data augmentation is one of the most effective ways to deal with variations arouse from different shooting angles. To deal with brightness variations, changing the brightness of surrounding environment can be effective to collect photo for dataset. This study demonstrated the potential of the proposed machine recognition of ICs in the recycling process of small-sized electronics, and it is the first step in the evolution from remote recycling into automatic recycling.

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Finally, as for the future work, it is necessary to expand datasets in order to improve classification ability for IC in future. Specifically, increasing the amount of data based on existing data by mirroring, rotation, random cropping, creating more broken IC images to expend dataset, and so on, will be effective. Then, of course recognition range are not only limited to ICs and plastics. It will be expanded to tantalum capacitors and vibration motors in future. Thereinto, tantalum capacitors mounted on PCB mainly contain Ta, and vibration motors in mobile phone mainly contain Nd and W [13]. Through solving these problems, the application of machine recognition in the intermediate process can be one of the key technologies in efficient recycling. In addition, the cost of application with machine recognition will be evaluated for comparing to conventional recycling methods in the future work.

References 1. Japan, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2018) White paper on information and communications in Japan. (In Japanese), pp 236. https://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/ whitepaper/ja/h30/pdf/30honpen.pdf. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 2. Japan, Ministry of the Environment (2019) Issues of the small household appliance recycling system and policy draft. (In Japanese), pp 44. https://www.env.go.jp/council/03recycle/siryou2 koden.pdf. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 3. Japan, Ministry of the Environment (2019) Issues of the small household appliance recycling system and policy draft. (In Japanese), pp 16. https://www.env.go.jp/council/03recycle/siryou2 koden.pdf. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 4. NHK (2019) “Buried cell phones”, what is their surprising value? (In Japanese). https://www. nhk.or.jp/osakablog/fukabori/413000.html. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 5. Japan, Ministry of the Environment (2019) Reference data of economic evaluation of recycling system (In Japanese), pp 16. https://www.env.go.jp/recycle/recycling/raremetals/conf_ruca/ h22/h22_ref09.pdf. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 6. Mishima N, Torihara K, Hirose K, Matsumoto M (2015) A proposal on remote recycling system for small-sized e-waste. In: Proceedings of 2015 international conference on concurrent engineering, Delft, Netherland, June 2015, pp 46–53 7. LeCun Y, Bengio Y (1995) Convolutional networks for images, speech, and time series. The handbook of brain theory and neural networks 3361(10):255–258 8. Krizhevsky A, Sutskever I, Hinton GE (2017) ImageNet classification with deep convolutional neural networks. Commun ACM 60(6):84–90 9. Deng L (2012) The MNIST database of handwritten digit images for machine learning research. 2012 IEEE Signal Process Mag 29(6):141–142 10. Kito S (2016) A study of shape recognition of surface mount devices (In Japanese). National Diet Library Japan, pp 1–4 11. He K, Zhang X, Ren S, Sun J (2016) Deep residual learning for image recognition. In: Proceedings of the conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, Las Vegas Valley, NV, USA, June 2016 12. The small-sized electronics crusher HO-300. http://oshigane.jp/ho_300-1.html. Accessed 2 Jul 2021 13. Yumoto T, Shiratori T (2009) Study on recycling of metals in WEEE (In Japanese). J MMIJ 125:75–80

Chapter 17

Exploring New Way Media Information of the Product That Promote Sustainable Consumption and Production Edilson Ueda

17.1

Introduction

The growing concern towards green goods, eco-products and sustainable products from companies and users could be noted through Eco-Product Exhibition in JapanTokyo from 1999 to 2019. National and international companies have increasingly demonstrated their commitment to improving products and services with environmental and social concern. This estimate was based on the number of exhibitors and visitors to the Eco-Product Exhibition [1, 2]. Recently, another important factor that had to contribute to a sustainable society is the contents through a guideline called Sustainable Development goals 17 (SDGs17), which was introduced in the year 2019 August. The logomark of SDGs17 has been released through the poster displayed at department stores, shopping, convenience stores and annual environmental companies report. The logomark has also released in the academic book for universities and high schools [3]. However, the implementation of SDGs17 is its initial phase. According to the Basic Policy on Promotion Green Procurement of Japan [4], in order to drive demand for environmental products and services, it is essential not only to promote the supply of these products and services but also to promote the prioritization of the purchase of sustainable products and services. Prioritizing the purchase of sustainable products and services will help form markets for these products and services, which will promote their development and, as a result, increase the purchase of environmental products and services [4]. In order to incentive the users to purchase environmental products and services, we explore new possible ways to inform the product information in order to

E. Ueda (✉) Sustainable Design Laboratory, Design Research Institute (DRI), Chiba University, Chiba, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_17

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contribute more sustainable level through the concern and incentive of users and companies to goal a balance of environmental, social and economic aspects. The approach of product information is diversified, such as television advertisements, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, company websites and others. This research is limited to the current situation, the available standard label and eco-label attached to their products. And also the other ways of product information as the instruction manual according to the product categories. In order to propose new way media information of the product that promotes sustainable consumption and production in the following section is described the current and basic information of label and ecological mark in Japan. In this research, the terms traditional products refer to products in marketing, with the traditional characteristics: quality, performance, cost, styling and others. On the other hand, the term environmental products refer to products that have integrated environmental aspects, which commonly are called as green-goods, eco-product and more recently sustainable products.

17.2 17.2.1

Standard Label and Environmental Label in Japan The Standard Label of Traditional Products in Japan

In Japan, individual product categories require labels for selling, such as textiles, electrical appliances, plastic products, miscellaneous household and other consumer goods. These requirements are based on the law and regulations of the Japanese government [5]. In the case of food and agricultural products, the regulations are more complex than those involved all producers, distributors, and other operators before being their consumption [6]. According to the Household Product Quality Labelling Law, the product companies must present through the label their relation to the basic information like the name of the company, material, country origin and other information according to the products categories. These labels permit the consumer to identify their basic information before purchasing products in their use daily [5].

17.2.2

The Environmental Label and Eco Mark of Environmental Products in Japan

The environmental label is a label with a mark related to environmental information of product or services, for example, the reduction of environmental load, promotion of environmental conservation, recycling and reuse material and others [7].

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The mark related to environmental is called Eco Mark. The Japan Environmental Association established the Eco Mark Office in 1989 as a standard environmental labelling system in Japan (JEA). It is managed according to the ISO 14020 standard of the International Organization for Standardization (Environmental labels and declarations—General principles) [8]. The Japanese Eco Mark is taken into account regarding environmental load in all the life stages of products (collection, manufacturer, distribution, use and consumption, recycling and disposal) from environmental viewpoints and is considered in an additional four areas (resource-saving and recycling, prevention of global warming, control of hazardous substances and conservation of diversity) to enhance credibility [7, 9].

17.3

General Design Method

Initially, we review the most traditional and popular media of product labels which are annexed during their production phase and used during their sales phases. Figure 17.1 shows the current label of clothes. We can note that the current materials are paper sheet printed and plastic tie. Some labels, there is no information printed on back. The essential information is the product’s code, size of the product, barcode, serial number, material of the product, name of company and address. We review and explore the current product label with environmental information permitted developing a conceptual framework about a concrete tool for incentivizing more sustainable consumption. The research has its base on the following methods: preliminary literature reviews, collection of the label of daily life products and a survey of ecolabels, pictograms and application icons. At the beginning of this research, data from reports of ecolabel and pictograms of Eco Mark of products were collected. A general view of current Eco Marks and product categories with environmental categories was analysed. Furthermore, the available eco-label and Eco Marks from the Japanese and foreign literature were reviewed and compared. Moreover, the study was carried out through observations during visits to sales places of department stores in Japan. Additional data were gathered through conversations with users and store staff, photographic documentation and customer satisfaction feedback found in blogs and online reviews. Figure 17.2 shows 22 representatives of environmental labels used in the product in Japan. A proposal design called ‘Sustain Label Information’ (SLI) was developed and evaluated through interviews with an expert involved with Sustainable Management Promotion and Organization in Japan (SuMPO) and with the expert of Eco Mark in Japan. The characteristics and features of the proposed design were also evaluated

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Fig. 17.2 22 representatives of environmental labels in Japan [7]

through a survey formulated and distributed to Japanese users–consumers through the web and printer questionnaire.

17.4

The Current Label and Manual Instruction of Traditional Products

Figure 17.3 shows examples of the printed labels attached to daily life products, characterized by their different sizes, layouts and colours, in different types of products. It also shows the manual instruction of different types of products printed in A4 and B5 size with different layouts and font sizes. The current situation of a specific daily life product design categories, for example, clothes, shoes, personal goods and others, their basic media information is the printed labels with limited information. This information refers to the product and company name, price, the material used, logotypes and others. In the manual instruction of products, there is not a standard size which users could put in the holder of the files. In some product categories, products’ labels and manual instruction are discarded after a certain period.

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Fig. 17.3 The issues of current label and manual instruction of products

17.5

User Attitude towards Current Label and Manual Instruction of Traditional Products

In order to propose a realistic and concrete way to contribute to the promotion of sustainable consumption and production of sustainable products, we first formulated a questionnaire based on the previous section. The current label and manual instructions of products were chosen as a case study. A total of 166 Japanese respondents answered the questionnaire through the printed form and also on our web site. The balanced manner in terms of gender ratio (male 58.4% and female 40.4%) and age (19–88) and 80% of respondents answered through the Google Form. According to the result, 93% of respondents expressed that they check the labels attached to the products for individual use, such as clothing, during its purchase phase. Moreover, 56% of respondents check the labels attached to the daily products, stationery goods, tableware goods, kitchen goods during their purchasing.

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According to the results, 99% of respondents expressed that after purchasing their products, the labels are discarded and become garbage. In the relationship of manual instruction of products, 91% of respondents expressed that according to the product categories as bicycle, appliances, electronic equipment, machine and others, the manuals are conserved. However, a small per cent of respondents (35%) expressed who read the manual in detail. These manuals with guarantee certificates (1 or more years) are conserved into the period from 2 to 5 years. After 5 or more years passed, these manuals with warranty expired are discarded and become garbage. The quantity of labels printed and manual instruction discarded has been increased year by year according to the cost reduction of product for sales (e.g. 100 yen goods) and the purchasing power of users–consumers.

17.6

User Attitudes Towards the Current Ecological Label Used in Environmental Products

There are more than 120 kinds of ecological label used in services and products in Japan, which they were approved by the national government and local government [7–9]. This fact shows the crescent number of companies with environmental improvement in their product development and had shown their contribution to environmental and benefits through the ecological label [7, 8]. In order to understand the user’s attitude towards the current ecological label, we formulated a questionnaire based on the analysis of the 22 representative national ecological labels (Fig. 17.2). These ecological labels whose design elements are: 1. Use of pictogram, 2. Use of words, and 3. Use of colour. These representative national ecological labels were chosen to certify if users have been to see or not them. If users answered yes, we ask them to exemplify the type or name of the product, for example, an environmental concern mark printed in a package of toilet paper, a recycled mark used in a t-shirt made of recycled pet plastic etc. The results of analysis of these ecological labels were significant in order to understand the preferences and attitudes of users towards these labels during the purchasing a product. According to the 166 respondents of a questionnaire related to the attitude of users during the purchase of a product by users, the majority considered price (48.3%), easy to use a product (38.4%), environmental concern (10.7%) and others (2.6%). Based on these results, unfortunately, we cannot be argued that the users are still highly aware of the environment.

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Concerning users knowledge of 28 categories of products (e.g. automobile, bicycle, electronic products, machinery, home appliances, furniture, tools, office products), and their environmental improvement, the respondents expressed that they had knowledge of environmental aspects of the following products: home appliances that take the first place and automobiles in second place. Users perceived the environmental aspects of these two product categories through their previous experience during their use phase, which requires much energy during its use phase and emits a large amount of CO2. Another factor contributing to this knowledge by users is the energy-saving labelling system and eco-points for home appliance and a sticker for achieving fuel efficiency standards for automobiles, which shows that a system provides incentives for both consumers and companies. Based on these examples, the incentive media of products are essential for making people interested in the ecological aspects of products. In relation to the manual instruction attached to the product, 84.7% expressed that they not read. However, 61.4% conserve it, and 38.6% dispose of it. Between the 22 representative national environmental concern labels in Japan (Fig. 17.2), the majority of respondents (49.4%) expressed that had seen the ‘Eco Mark’ (it is characterized by the hands enveloping the blue earth planet) printed in a recycled paper and other product packages in the Japanese marketing. Other 21 environmental marks were little known by the user or had never seen them. However, respondents expressed that their mark design conveyed an ‘ecofriendly feeling’. These results show a positive correlation between the design of mark and environmental concern contents.

17.7

Designing Sustain Label Information (SLI) Based on the Users Attitudes and Preference

According to the questionnaire related to the conventional or traditional labels of products in the marketing, the majority of users have expressed resistance to conserve them after products purchased. These labels were removed from products and discarded. Another per cent of users who keep and conserve the labels for a future purchase or only as purchase history commented: the conventional label is difficult to remember details of the product because there does not image or photo of the product. Users expressed also that only by the name of company and code of the product, and it is not easy to identify the purchased product for a future purchase, it is necessary to add some details manually as product category and price. The bar code has been printed in label only in purchase phase, and mainly used in product management such as their stock, sell and price.

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Fig. 17.4 Designing sustain label information

17.7.1

Environmental Icon

To promote an ecological consciousness of users during the purchase of a greengoods, eco-product and sustainable products, we improve the 22 representative current environmental icons (Fig. 17.2) and traditional label contents by implementing environmental information that the general public can quickly identify. Figure 17.4 shows the proposal of six redesigns of these representative environmental icons. The details of each icon are described in Sect. 17.7.2. The improvement process was based on the current classification, objective and design elements of each ecological icon. We summarize their 22 environmental icon contents in the most six categories relevant for the current marketing and users preferences.

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Based on this analysis results and also the respondent’s preferences, we also propose a standard design environmental label called ‘Sustain Label Information’ (SLI) with six environmental icon goals. The design label is based on the current issues of the traditional label (Figs. 17.1 and 17.3), and also the large quantity diverse environmental icon, more than 120 icons attached to products and the current issues of manual instruction of products. The proposal contents of SLI is the results of the user’s attitude and preferences related to these issues.

17.7.2

Design of Environmental Icons and Products Category Icons

In order to solve the fact discarding of label attitudes by users, we propose a more attractive design in which users could collect the card input in a folder for after proposal as purchase history, handle memo in the label, e.g. good product price and date. Figure 17.4 shows ‘Sustain Label Information’, its basic layout, product category information, the four main environmental icons related with the example of the product (e.g. in the case of shoe product), QR code and Bar Code. The backside of the label shows the six main icons with a short description of these objectives. The collection of the label with six environmental icons in each type of product could become a brand identity of each company. Thus, the effort and consideration of environmental aspects by companies could be recognized with more intended by consumers. This could motivate to improve a more sustainable improvement in their products. This label information could promote sustainable consumption and production in current and future marketing. The process of selection of six icons environmental was based on the general comments of 166 respondents (age from 19 to 88), the representative 22 national environmental icons. They are identified and redesign to facilitate users to understand their significance related to environmental aspects. The redesign criteria for environmental icons for the SLI proposal was based on the following design elements: (a) icon size, (b) icon with addition or not of the words or phrases, (c) icon colours, black and white. Furthermore, their contents were reviewed and compared through the eight Ecodesign strategies [10]: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

New concept, Material, Production, Distribution, Use,

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Fig. 17.5 Redesigning six representative environmental icon

6. 7. 8. 9.

Reuse, Recycle, Disposal, and also with the addition of sustainability approach as the socio-cultural and the economic aspects.

From 22 redesigned environmental icons, six main icons were chosen by users, which they expressed that they were quick to identify and easy to understand. Figure 17.5 shows the six representative icons in white and black colours. Due to the limitation of the research, the colours of the icon were discarded in this research. The environmental contents of the six icons are related to the following items: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Recycle material used in the product, Reuse of products, Energy concern of production and use phase of the product, The social contribution of products and services,

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5. Cultural aspects of products, and. 6. Economic aspects related to the production and selling phase of products. Based on the limited information (name of company and code of product) of product identification in the conventional label, we reviewed the product categories of daily life through references as web site shopping and product catalogues. The most representative 48 daily life product categories were translated into pictograms. According to the users, the majority of them considered it easy to identify the category of product.

17.7.3

Incentive the Eco-Service Through the QR (Quick Response) Code-Based Information

Through the QR code printed in label, companies could introduce the after-sales support through after-sales eco-services in any service provide after users have purchased a product. The eco-services could include support regarding warranty service, repair and upgrades. QR code incentives users to access information in real-time through their smartphones and other electronic media. The use of QR permits users to get environmental information of each of six icons, profile of the company and their other activities as the integration of SDGs 17 (Sustainable Development Goals 17), social responsibility policy of companies towards their products, the integration and inclusion of community participation and integration in their activities (Fig. 17.6). Users, through this information in mind, can decide the choice of the product during their purchasing. Another benefit of QR code inclusion is the technical aspects, as the reduce the printed manual of product that digital media can replace through the download of files. The printed information of the product in ‘Sustain Label Information’ (SLI) include in its front view the name of the product, price, photo or icon of the product, and the primary environmental improvement icons integrated into the product, in others words, the main environmental strategy of companies’ efforts. The barcode can be read the current access terminal related to the price and sales. The QR code offers an opportunity to users to access the companies’ sites, details of products not described in its label or package. The QR code can be used to register the purchased product and offer service as maintenance according to product category. This improvement permits consumers more sustainable consumption attitudes during the purchase of a product. Moreover, allow users to access more and new information or upgrade the product during their use phase. Digital information as the webpage of companies and social media permits the upgrade of new information.

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Fig. 17.6 QR code-based for environmental information of product

Users, through their smartphone, can be read the QR and access details of the product before purchasing the product. This initiative could stimulate companies to improve their products with environmental aspects and social benefits. Companies could, through the QR, inform their cooperation efforts to reduce the environmental impact and social contribution. In the traditional media, this information needs time and costs to for dissemination of information, conventional printed in a manual or catalogue.

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Fig. 17.7 Example of leather label information of product

17.7.4

Design of Label of Products: Size and Materials

Towards the design of the label of products, respondents expressed their interest in the size of the label, in which they could be placed it in their wallets. Then, we studied and compared the current size and material used in the current label. As a result, we redesign a new size label based on the international standard card size (The ISO 7810 ID-1, 85.6 mm × 53.98 mm), commonly used in business cards and credit cards [11]. Figure 17.5 shows the proportion of standard card size. According to the questionnaire, half of the users answered that they were not interested in collecting the label. This fact can be augmented by the traditional label not offer significant merit to collect it. Give this fact as a way of awakening the interest of users about labels, we explored other materials in the label, such as the texture of bamboo fibre, the texture of leather scraps and the texture of recycled plastic. Figure 17.7 shows an example of a label made of reused leather scrapes. The users touching on the texture of the label can offer a new experience and arouse a feeling of not fast discarding, but of fixing for a certain amount of time off in the future selection the labels deemed by their importance. Figure 17.8 shows an example of label information printed in the package of kitchen paper. Figure 17.9 shows a new media sustainable information way in organic foods. Future proposal design will be explored based on the similar approach not based on the limited card size standard but the new alternative, as the information in high

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Fig. 17.8 Example of label information printed in the package of product (kitchen paper)

Fig. 17.9 Example of label information printed on organic food

relief of products through laser techniques or in the production of product moulds, this technique reduces the amount of material during the sales phase of a product.

17.8

Conclusion

Based on the preliminary study and evaluated by the general public and experts through auditory research, prototypes were created based on the preliminary study.

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In the second phase, a new questionnaire survey was formulated and distributed to users. One hundred seventy users answered it, which the age ranged from 18 to 80. According to the results, users showed a growing ecological consciousness. They expressed that the proposal contents of environmental information could allow discovering products that are widely considered sustainable and get information related to eco-services and eco-business. The proposal could contribute to the scope of the existing Eco Mark. According to product characteristics, the research shows that users demonstrated different opinions and viewpoints towards their media information, with environmental details regarding their product categories. In the different types and categories of products were found unique and original design solutions of media. There was not one type of media information as the traditional label of products. However, the fundamental factor of sustainability dimension icons was standard in all product categories, such as environmental, economic, socio-cultural and technological.

17.9

Limitation of Research and Consideration of Future Proposal Design

This research is in its initial phase, which proposed a basic standardization of the eco-label for the present and future development of environmental products in Japanese marketing. More than 120 types of eco-labelled products and services approved by the Government of Japan are maturing phase, in which an increasing number of Japanese companies with eco-label have demonstrated their interest in the environmental improvement of products and services. However, the research and proposed design of eco-label have its limitation related to the information resources, limitation of the number of respondents or questionnaire, time and context scale. Moreover, few academic-industrial designers are skilled in eco-label and poorly studied and propose an eco-label system for specific products and services in Japanese marketing. Considering the future research on standardized proposal eco-label involves a profound understanding of the current standard and rules, limitations and possibilities in the Japanese government eco-label system. At the same need to review the national scale of Japanese companies’ current and future environmental products and services. It also needs to consider the possibility and limitations in the different product categories. The proposal’s implementation also involves recognizing the possible services that businesses could incorporate into large-scale marketing, such as maintenance, repair and upgrade.

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References 1. Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) (2019) EcoPro2019. https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/ database/j-messe/tradefair/detail/104884. Accessed Jan 2020 2. Eco-Pro Organizer Secretariat (Nikkei Inc. Division) (2021) EcoPro2021. https://eco-pro. com/2021/. Accessed Jan 2020 3. United Nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals 17. https://www.undp.org. Accessed Jan 2020 4. Ministry of the Environment Japan (2016) Introduction to green purchasing legislation in japan. https://www.env.go.jp/policy/hozen/green/kokusai_platform/2015report/handbook_eng.pdf. Accessed Dec 2019 5. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) (2017) Household Goods Quality Labeling Act handbook 6. Handbook. https://www.caa.go.jp/policies/policy/representation/household_goods/pamphlet/ pdf/pamphlet_03_0001.pdf. Accessed Jan 2020 7. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2006) The law concerning standardization and proper labeling of agricultural and forestry products. https://www.maff.go.jp/e/jas/pdf/law01. pdf. Accessed Jan 2020 8. Japan Environmental Association (JEA)Eco Mark Office (2007) Institute of the Eco Mark. https://www.ecomark.jp/english/ecomark.html. Accessed Jan 2020 9. Japan Environmental Association (JEA)Eco Mark Office (2012) Introduction of Eco Mark. http://www.neaspec.org/sites/default/files/Day1-Overview%20of%20Eco-labeling-Japan.pdf. Accessed Jan 2020 10. Brezet H, Hemel C (1998) Ecodesign—a promising approach to sustainable production and consumption. United Nations Environmental Programme UNEP, pp 103–310 11. International Standard Organization (ISO) (2019) ISO/IEC 7810:2019 Identification cards— physical characteristics, https://www.iso.org/standard/70483.html. Accessed Jan 2020

Chapter 18

Towards Digital Circular Design Sami Majaniemi, Jyri Hanski, Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Teuvo Uusitalo, and Marjaana Karhu

18.1

Introduction

Circular economy concepts and design strategies have recently received growing interest among academia, companies and decision-makers. However, concrete industrial processes are still far from circular as only 8.6% of raw materials circulate back to use [1]. According to some estimates, circa 80% of costs and environmental impacts of products are determined already at the design stage of new products. If poor choices are made early on, their consequences are hard to rectify later in design cycle or life cycle of a product. Therefore, eco-design and related design for X approaches have the potential to substantially reduce the overall life cycle cost and harmful environmental impacts of products and services if the relevant information is available for designers from the start. Key performance indicators (KPIs) should support the designers already at the screening and concept development phase. In addition to timely availability of design circular indicators, the transition towards circular economy also calls for system-level understanding in several interacting dimensions: To optimize performance of new products and services, designers need verified information on various design parameters such as the material and energy use, emissions, as well as the life cycle costs and benefits of the alternative designs for the relevant ecosystem actors. The latter aspect will lead to introduction of novel collaborative data sharing and design techniques to be introduced in the sections to follow. More optimal results can be obtained if several value-network operators act together, which in turn leads to the requirement that design tools should be S. Majaniemi (✉) VTT, Espoo, Finland e-mail: sami.majaniemi@vtt.fi J. Hanski · P. Kivikytö-Reponen · T. Uusitalo · M. Karhu VTT, Tampere, Finland © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_18

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applicable for ecosystem-level assessment. Naturally, the traditional microscopic (product level) assessment features should also be offered in addition to the systemlevel features. Moreover, the design tools should enable interplay between different types of actors such as designers, experts and decision-makers. Legislative constraints and business strategy inputs can be used to generate important boundary conditions for the design process, which leads to a wider view of design as a continuous process enabling later modifications and re-design. Currently, there is a lack of modelling-based digital design tools, which would enable a holistic and collaborative circular design affordable for small and medium size enterprises. While there are several commercial and open-source tools, which work well for isolated impact dimensions (related to, e.g. combined modelling of mechanical responses of products integrated with material choice related databases), we are still missing tools and tool platforms, which enable reliable multi-domain estimation of costs, benefits and impacts and fulfil additional design criteria derivable, e.g. from the business models of companies.

18.2

Circular Design Platform: Modelling Factory and Its Semantic Core

Digital solutions can speed up the product development processes and improve the circularity of products and services. This paper focuses on the development of integrated computational models and their IT support solutions that enable rapid screening and testing of design ideas. The support platform of CE models includes a variety of tools for computation of selected key performance indicators. Its base technology is currently in commercial and academic use and it has been piloted in several use cases, e.g. in digital twin generation for process optimization purposes and life cycle assessment of various products. The ultimate goal of the digital tool platform development is to provide a comprehensive virtual toolkit for system-level circular design. Examples of integrated tools include life cycle assessment and life cycle costing tools, circularity indicators, materials modelling tools (life-time prediction under operational conditions) and system dynamics tools. Additionally, eco-design and business model perspectives are considered as yielding important parametrizable design constraints that should be respected over the entire design life cycle. The assessment method related background behind the chosen tool set will be presented in Sects. 18.3 and 18.4. We will begin this chapter with the description of the design platform and its functionalities. The platform, called Modelling Factory, is a virtual working space, where individuals and organizations can test and share their ideas on how to advance material efficiency and sustainable circular economy by creating different types of computational models and design solutions for CE operations. The model-based solutions can be validated with real measurement data and database inputs (LCA,

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thermodynamic databases etc.), and different design solutions can be compared with each other. Modelling Factory is in constant use in various projects and we have also created stand-alone instances of the LCA cloud services for industrial use cases. Free of charge demo version can be accessed at https://modellingfactory.org/. The flexibility of Modelling Factory derives from its underlying technology stack called Simantics. It is an integration environment enabling co-simulation and communication between different types of open source and proprietary software (Fig. 18.1). The development of the Modelling Factory base technology started already more than a decade ago with emphasis on the process industry related simulation models. Various types of simulation tools have been integrated into the system over the years (some examples shown in Fig. 18.1). Also, large open-source model libraries (modelica.org) and open-source solvers (openmodelica.org) are available for systems simulations and other purposes. The power of the base technology, which is also utilized for the integrated CE assessment models, derives from the Simantics Core semantic data representation capabilities. Semantic data platforms and fully semantic databases are still relatively rare these days, despite the evolution of internet technologies (cf. semantic web [3]). All simulation models, their user interfaces and the data, are represented as semantic data on our integration environment. This enables rapid integration possibilities, when the integrated models and the data they interact with, and has been subjected to effective data modelling. The data modelling step is by no means trivial, and it takes a lot of practice to set the resolution of the ontological data expressions optimal for any application to be integrated. Consequently, data and model integration are never trivial or completely automatable, they always require a working knowledge of the field of application as well as information-theoretical knowledge about the pros and cons of the various data mapping alternatives. In short, semantic data representation is never a trivial thing to perform, yet in experienced hands it may results in considerable time savings as regards model integration process. Additionally, the ideology on which our platform has been built, and is consistent with many of the ‘smart & linked data’ principles pushed forward in several on-going and forthcoming EU research programs, which address the re-usability and linkages of data and simulation software [4]. As regards the Modelling Factory platform, which utilizes the integration technology described above, several circular economy-related simulation software components have been integrated already. In particular, we offer interoperability support for most commonly used sustainability related impact assessment methods (LCA, LCC, Social LCA (macro economy)) and enhance them with generic methods related to System Dynamics (SD) and ICME (Integrated computational materials engineering) modelling possibilities (see Sect. 18.4). The interlinkage possibilities of all these different modelling and assessment methods have been depicted in Fig. 18.2. In Fig. 18.2, we have depicted a novel information pipeline for CE planning activities, which should be of general interest to life cycle management related issues in companies. The Modelling Factory platform allows its users to utilize design

Fig. 18.1 Simantics [2] integration environment. A fraction of the integrated numerical solvers and simulation software shown in the green boxes

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Fig. 18.2 Integration of different modelling paradigms with company’s strategic planning

requirements derived from a company’s business model. These requirements are fed into an integrated assessment framework consisting of different types of simulation models (see Sect. 18.4). To summarize, in the description of our integrated assessment capabilities, we have used the following short-hand notations in Fig. 18.2: EcoD = Eco-Design models, LCA = Life Cycle Assessment models, LCC = Life Cycle Cost models, SD = System Dynamics models, TEA = Techno-Economic Assessment models, pT = ProperTune = computational materials engineering based assessment models.

18.3 Circular Design Circular design requires development of dedicated methodology, it is not simply a collection of (historically) more or less unrelated assessment techniques. It is recognized as a catalyst to move from linear operating and organizational model to circular economy of linked operators [5]. It can be defined through a collection of the key principles and strategies that designers should follow. Several design strategies are available: • Narrowing, i.e. using fewer or less products, materials and energy over the life cycle of the system, • Slowing, i.e. using products and materials longer, • Closing, i.e. bringing waste back into economic cycle, • Regenerating, i.e. managing and sustaining natural ecosystem services and using renewable and nontoxic materials and energy, and. • Informing, i.e. using information technology to support circular economy [6]. Circular design strategies should consider the systemic and hierarchical perspectives, which affect the selection of a proper circularity principle or Design for X method. Therefore, it is beneficial to divide circular design principles into hierarchical levels: product, business model and ecosystem. Table 18.1 connects circular design principles and design for X strategies into hierarchy levels and circular strategies.

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Table 18.1 Circular design principles and design for X methods and their connection to circular strategies. Adapted and modified for present purposes from Ref. [6] Circular strategy Narrow

Hierarchy level Product

Slow

Business model Ecosystem Product

Business model

Close

Ecosystem Product

Business model Ecosystem Regenerate

Product Business model Ecosystem

Inform

Product

Business model Ecosystem

Examples of circular design principle or design for X method Design with low-impact inputs Design for multiple functions and light weight Enable and incentivize users to consume less Eliminate production waste Maximize capacity use of products Design for physical and emotional durability Design for maintainability, repair and upgradability Design for standardization and compatibility Design for dis- and reassembly Encourage sufficiency Enable users to maintain and repair their products Repurpose, upgrade or remanufacture existing products and components Provide the product as a service Turn disposables into a reusable service Design with recycled inputs and materials suitable for primary recycling Design components, where appropriate, with one material Design for disassembly Reuse and sell components and materials from discarded products Enable and incentivize product returns Build local waste-to-product loops Engage in industrial symbiosis Design with non-toxic, renewable and living materials Design self-charging products Produce, process and transport with renewable energy Power the use of products with renewable energy Recover nutrients from urban areas Manage and sustain critical ecosystem services Use artificial intelligence to develop new materials with circular properties Virtualize Use product-in-use data for circular design Track resource intensity of the product-in-use Track the condition, location and/or availability of the product Market circular products, components and materials through online platforms Build material database ecosystems Operate service ecosystems via online platforms

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As seen from the table above, the scope of circular design principles operates in a hierarchical manner, covering various methods from the traditional microscopic (product-wise) planning to macroscopic (economy) level planning. All these different levels require different modelling tools and methods to be discussed in more detail in Sects. 18.4 and 18.5.

18.4

Materials and Methods

This chapter presents a short review of different methods used in assessing the degree of ecological, economic and social sustainability. The list is not exhaustive but serves to indicate how the sustainability assessment tool and its underlying integration framework can be utilized in serving the needs of different KPI computation methods.

18.4.1

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Life cycle assessment is a scientific method applied broadly in business and research contexts (Fig. 18.3). LCA is based on the ISO standards 14040 [7] and 14044 [8], Fig. 18.3 The assessment practices are thoroughly guided by the ISO standards for life cycle assessment [7], e.g. carbon footprint [10] and water footprint [11]

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acknowledged also by European Commission as the ‘best framework for assessing the potential environmental impacts of products’ [9]. The method has an iterative nature, which means, for example, that the scope of the study can be adjusted due to limited data availability during the data collection. Data scarcity is a commonly repeating challenge in LCA assessment. LCA enables calculating the potential environmental impacts throughout product’s life cycle, ‘cradle to grave’, or ‘cradle to cradle’ when discussing CE applications. Sometimes the study is adjusted to cover different parts of the life cycle such as ‘cradle to gate’ or ‘gate to gate’ phases. The chosen restrictions strongly affect the results. In LCA the direct, indirect as well as embodied emissions, energy, wastes and materials are taken into account. Input data can be either specific, i.e. taken from the actual production processes, or average, i.e. obtained from the life cycle databases. The average data-based assessments can understandably never produce as accurate results as an assessment based on product-specific data, which may be hard to come by in the actual inventory phase. According to the standards, critical review is required if the results of LCA are intended to be used in public comparative assertions.

18.4.2

Life Cycle Costing (LCC)

Since the 1960s, the life cycle costing (LCC) method has undergone several evolutionary phases. LCC is a standard-based approach that provides an assessment of economic and cost implications of a product, service or process over its defined life cycle(s). It is closely related with techno-economic assessment (TEA) which aims at identifying the most efficient pathways for technological development and technology deployment [12]. There are several sector specific standards for LCC such as for construction [13], military [14] and oil and gas industry [15]. Our present LCC models and tools are based on IEC 60300-3-3 standard [16], multi-criteria analysis and life cycle cost and profit analysis (LCC/LCP). IEC 60300-3-3 is a generic standard that is applicable for many sectors and application areas. In general, even though a variety of standards exists, LCC is less standardized than LCA. LCC provides a framework for specifying the estimated total incremental cost of developing, producing, using and retiring a particular item. It is a better indicator of value for money than the initial acquisition costs alone. Objective of LCC is to compare alternative solutions and assist decision-makers in selecting the most appropriate options from economic cost point of view [16]. It is used for choosing between investment alternatives, optimal budget allocation, calculating trade-offs and identifying uncertainty and risk hot spots [16, 17]. Typical KPIs or financial evaluation techniques include discounted cash flow (provides Net Present Value (NPV)), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) or cost-benefit analysis (CBA).

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As is the case with LCA, LCC is also useful to directly provide cost information to designers, to reduce the life cycle cost of the products they design [18]. Even more powerful tools for the designers and decision-makers can be generated by combining the LCC and LCA methods. The forthcoming paradigm change to circular business operations also act as a driving force towards combination of different assessment methods. They may also include in the near future more linkage with the strategic decision-making level activities and interact with the design of new types of business models related to circular economy activities. As regards business model design for CE purposes, product portfolios are connected with a concept called Product-Service-Systems: A product service-system is a system of products, services, networks of players and supporting infrastructure that continuously strives to be competitive, satisfy customer needs and have a lower environmental impact than traditional business models [19]. Given this definition, the motivation for building better tools for understanding the ecological and economic consequences of design and business strategy choices is clear.

18.4.3

Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA)

Social life cycle assessment (SLCA) represents a newer dimension in the set of different impact assessment methods. Given the younger age of the field, depending on the chosen specific methods, there is even more room for interpretation of the results than with LCA and LCC. Also, some of the currently used definitions may not be compatible with all the practices followed in the more quantified older fields. Many of the quantitative methods developed elsewhere can be applied as part of social LCA studies, too (e.g. cost-benefit-, risk- and scenario-analyses). Part of the challenge of SLCA is to deal with the multitude of dimensions, where social impacts can be studied (e.g. legal compliance, international relations, socio-cultural effects). As such, many of the SLCA principles are well compatible with our general toolbox idea, e.g. the focus on being able to evaluate sustainability over entire valuechains (many linked operators). It is also possible to integrate some of the more quantitative SLCA models into our platform. To do this, social sustainability should be defined in a narrow sense, e.g. restricted to the evaluation to macro-economic indicators such as taxation and income distribution related measures or labour force evolution.

18.4.4

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA)

Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) is a framework concept, which embodies the three different assessment dimensions introduced above (ecologic, economic and social). Importantly, it also embraces the three different granularity

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levels mentioned in the context of LCA. Hence, our tool platform’s ability to cover meso- and even macro-level models beyond the traditional microscopic product level makes it also a useful tool choice for LCSA type assessments addressing sector and entire economy related questions. In short, unlike LCA, LCSA is a transdisciplinary integration framework of models rather than a model in itself [19]. LCSA can utilize simulation models from different application domains. Structuring, selecting and making many of models practically available in relation to different types of life cycle sustainability questions is then the main challenge. Although this is fully compatible with ISO’s clause ‘there is no single method for conducting LCA’, it is a significant deviation from LCA practice up until now [20].

18.4.5

System Dynamics (SD)

System dynamics (SD) is a different type of modelling approach compared to other approaches introduced above. SD is a modelling paradigm emphasizing the role of time-dependent changes in contrast to LCA & LCC, which operate more in timeindependent stock book-keeping style. In contrast, the stocks in SD models change over time as their content ‘flows’ through the pathways linking different model variables together. These dynamic features lead complicated feedback mechanisms [21]. Understanding the non-intuitive changes in the dynamic responses is one of the characteristic challenges (and most useful outputs, when done successfully) of the method. For example, it is possible to try to understand, why changes in tax policies could ‘pay themselves back’ via so-called dynamic effects, or how a merchant should optimize her stock usage given that the consumer response to advertising comes with unpredictable delay. SD is well suited to represent successive material flow processes and their interdependencies. SD models have been utilized extensively in circular economy literature to model, e.g. circular business strategies, construction waste reduction at design phase and effects of product lifetimes in the consumer electronics industry [22–25]. As such, system dynamic modelling does not provide a way to obtain exact results on some absolute scale. Rather, it offers a language, which helps in transforming complicated real-world problems into a mathematical form from which experienced users can derive qualitative predictions or validate scenarios. It is precisely the ability to combine qualitative reasoning with exact quantitative mathematics (in the form of equations) that makes the method so generally applicable. This is because qualitive solution features (e.g. whether an observable quantity is growing or diminishing over time) can be related to real-world phenomena of which no exact data is available continuously at all times. It makes sense to perform qualitative model-based comparisons of different design scenarios instead of trying to produce exact predictions based on in-exact input and parametrization data.

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261

Integrated Computational Materials Engineering

A fully integrated design for X framework should also enable use of ICME (integrated computational materials engineering) simulation models. ICME has traditionally been associated with (microscopic) product-wise design, but on a methodology level there is nothing that prevents it being applied to larger scale applications, too. ICME models are typically multi-domain (multi-physics) models, which develop the hierarchical (multi-scale) approach from the point of view of an isolated application. In addition to their quantitativeness (owing to the physics-based nature of the models), ICME category simulations provide important information about the product and its materials performance under realistic use conditions. These results can be utilized in LCC and LCA type assessments as well as in systemic level SD descriptions to provide estimates of life-times of different products (how fast do materials wear out, when are certain types of functionalities lost etc.), among other things. ICME category models are typically very computationally heavy, which means that faster-to-compute (surrogate) versions need to be developed for integration purposes with other types of circular design-related assessment models. Again, this task is in no way trivial, and requires dedicated resources and knowledge.

18.5

Results and Discussion

As discussed in the previous section, the circular economy design process is typically a multi-dimensional, multi-domain optimization task. The integrated simulation models involved in the exercise, must be fast to compute, yet accurate enough to identify the relevant regions of interest to the designers and decisionmakers operating on different levels. This means that we cannot always rely on the most microscopically accurate theories or simulation paradigms, but we have to replace them with ‘good enough’ surrogate models. The gain achieved by the use surrogate model is considerable, when the optimization phase of the different designs begins. In practice, this means that different category assessment models need to be re-run for multiple times, to be able to determine the optimal design parameter space for each specific application. In a sense, it could be argued that already the choice of different modelling methods mentioned in Sect. 18.4 is surrogate modelling (choosing the right resolution solvers for the rich resolution questions). Additional theoretical and numerical methods need to be applied to make all different category models, in particular the ICME level models, compatible with this fast and accurate enough simulation form. Our CE design platform has been constructed to support this type of surrogate level optimization processes needed for CE applications and further communication of the results as web applications. As stated above, several of the modelling paradigms introduced in Sect. 18.4 can already be interpreted as surrogate modelling paradigms, which are more easily

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integrable with each other than some other approaches, which ‘model the entire world from atomistics’. To highlight this statement, we present a short description of a couple of our most recent exercises with system dynamical and value-chain level LCA modelling exercises and describe their integration potential, already taken towards completion in on-going projects. We will also describe, how the hierarchical levels of the circular design paradigms explained in Sect. 18.3 are related to these developments as well as the circularity related KPIs produced.

18.5.1

Network LCA for CE Design: Generic Web Service for Value-Chain Sustainability Optimization

The current development of assessment software is heading for greater degree of integration. This is already clearly seen in the functionality of some concurrent commercial product-design related software, which combine LCA database information with mechanical materials response modelling (CAD, ICME, LCA databases) to provide designers valuable information of some integrated performance characteristics. While the approach is still microscopic (product-wise), it is on the right path as regards deeper degree of integration of dimensions and disciplines, which were not interacting optimally before. We have taken steps even beyond these nontrivial technical features by implementing collaborative functionalities in our design platform, the Modelling Factory, which aid in sharing of data needed for globally optimal CE design, without directly relinquishing any sensitive data items to other operators present in the same value-chain or value-network characteristic of circular economy ecosystem. Our approach to circular economy sustainability assessments currently bears the name Network LCA (a.k.a. value-chain LCA). It is a cloud-based LCA modelling framework, which enables the global value-chain level optimization of ecologic sustainability indices (carbon and water footprints etc.) of several value-chain members (companies) simultaneously and independently of each other. The publicly available version of the tool can be accessed at the address given in [26]. Network LCA is a demo service offered for testing on our Modelling Factory platform. In the near future, we will integrate it more completely with the other types of CE assessment capabilities already supported within the platform.

18.5.2

SD Models for CE Design: Analysis of Secondary Raw Materials Flows Using System Dynamics

As a second example, system dynamics paradigm was utilized to model material flows and calculate a dynamic circularity metric of a generic extended manufacturing

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system. The developed model may be interpreted as a generic material circulation model of a closed system producing its own secondary raw materials supply. Real life examples of such systems, which our generic model could be applied to include, for instance, extended producer responsibility systems of retailers and manufacturers to collect end-of-life products. Additionally, product-service system schemes and certain recycling systems could also be modelled in this way. In this SD model, circularity strategies and design principles such as lifetime extension, increasing the use of secondary raw materials, and increasing the recyclability of products can be tested. The model allows the testing of different combinations of circularity strategies to demonstrate the complex interactions of the selected strategies. In addition, the model allows for the circularity of a system to be assessed by a novel concept, dynamic circularity metric, which illustrates the impact of time-dependency on the circularity. These types of dynamic measures of circularity are typically missing from the more traditional approaches. Complementing other assessment methods with system dynamic models may help avoiding partial optimization approaches associated with static and single indicator analyses. Modelling the production, demand and secondary raw materials feedback loops supports the anticipation of secondary raw materials availability. Furthermore, grounding assessment in the real characteristics and sequences of the material flow system allows for more realistic assessment of system’s circularity.

18.6

Summary

We have explained how a novel circular economy design platform, Modelling Factory, can help present companies and future value-network operators to perform integrated and collaborative sustainability assessments. The results can be utilized by individual companies and applied to microscopic single product design. In addition, collaborative optimization capabilities of the platform can be used in value-chain level multi-operator design optimization tasks. We expect that the forthcoming circular economy operations increase the demand for these types of functionalities in commercial tool offerings, too. Next, we presented numerous impact assessment methods and circular design paradigms, which are useful by themselves and offer even more power when used in an integrated fashion. These methods include life cycle assessment and costing (LCA & LCC), as well as social life cycle assessment (SLCA) and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). To analyse time-dependent and materials performance and life-time related questions, we also introduced integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) and system dynamics (SD) as further modelling paradigm possibilities. System dynamics complements the quantitative analyses provided by the other assessment methods supported by the Modelling Factory platform. SD enables the combination of qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative information. For instance, LCA and LCC methods can generate input data for SD models, which,

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in turn provide system level impact estimates, which are useful for fixing qualitative decision-parameters by providing answers to questions such as ‘is certain impact going to be large or small?’, or, ‘Is some effect growing or diminishing and how much compared to some other design possibility?’ As explained in the previous sections, SD enables the inclusion of critical circular business model elements such as consumer behaviour and policy impacts. To increase the quantitativeness level of SD model, they can be supplemented by inputs obtained from LCA and LCC analysis, among others. These interlinkages necessitate the use of a modelling software integration platform, Modelling Factory in our case, which makes it possible to combine the data inputs (dynamically or statistically) as required by the various assessment methods used. Yet, because most data owned by companies is sensitive, there must also be a way of ‘sharing modelled effects without sharing the data directly’. To address this ubiquitous problem, we described in the Results section a sustainability cloud service developed for circular economy operators, called Network LCA. Currently, our simulation software enables the direct application of it to LCA and to some extent to LCC. In the next evolutions of the Modelling Factory, the same networked model sharing principle can also be applied to other impact assessment modelling paradigms introduced above. Finally, we point out that despite the power of being able to combine different types of impact assessment methods to improve the quality of decision making, integrated assessments simultaneously complicate the design process by increasing the number of situations where different, often incompatible, performance indicators could/should be compared or prioritized somehow. Resolving these types of realworld challenges requires also utilization of stake-holder ‘value’, ‘opinion’ and other ‘soft’ data which may be hard to express in simple numbers. In this respect there is still a lot of development work to be done. Inclusion and further development of existing techniques such as multi-criteria decision analysis may prove helpful in this respect.

References 1. Circle Economy (2021) The circularity gap report 2021. https://www.circularity-gap. world/2021 2. Open operating system for modelling and simulation. https://www.simantics.org/ 3. Fensel D, Lausen H, Polleres A, de Brujin J, Stollberg M, Roman D, Dominique J (2007) Enabling semantic web services. Springer, Berlin 4. EMMO: an ontology for applied sciences. https://emmc.info/emmo-info/ 5. Moreno M, De los Rios C, Rowe Z, Charnley F (2016) A conceptual framework for circular design. Sustainability 8:937. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8090937 6. Konietzko J, Bocken N, Hultink EJ (2020) A tool to analyze, ideate and develop circular innovation ecosystems. Sustainability 12:417. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010417 7. ISO 14040 (2006) Environmental management—life cycle assessment—principles and framework

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8. ISO 14044 (2006) Environmental management—Life cycle assessment—requirements and guidelines 9. Allacker K, Ardente F, Benini L, De Camillis C, Fazio S, Goralczyk M, Mancini L, Pant R, Recchioni M, Sala S, Schau EM (2013) Roadmap for the European platform on life cycle assessment: facilitating data collection and sustainability assessments for policy and business. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 10. ISO 14067 (2018) Greenhouse gases—carbon footprint of products—requirements and guidelines for quantification 11. ISO 14046 (2014) Environmental management—water footprint—principles, requirements and guidelines 12. Giacomella L (2021) Techno-economic assessment (TEA) and life cycle costing analysis (LCCA): discussing methodological steps and integrability. Insights into Reg Dev 3(2): 176–197. https://doi.org/10.9770/IRD.2021.3.2(2) 13. EN 15459 (2006) Energy efficiency for buildings—standard economic evaluation procedure for energy systems in buildings 14. NATO guide (2007) Methods and models for life cycle costing. RTO Technical Report 15. ISO 15663-1 (2000) Petroleum and natural gas industries—life cycle costing—part 1. Methodology 16. IEC 60300-3-3 (2017) Dependability management. Part 3-3: application guide–life cycle costing 17. Korpi E, Ala-Risku T (2008) Life cycle costing: a review of published case studies. Manag Audit J 23(3):240–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900810857703 18. Erkoyuncu JA, Roy R, Shehab E, Wardle P (2009) Uncertainty challenges in service cost estimation for product service systems in the aerospace and defence industries. In: Proceedings of the 1st CIRP Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2) conference, Cranfield University, 1–2 April 2009 19. Goedkoop M, van Haler C, te Riele H, Rommers P (1999) Product service-systems, ecological and economic basics. Report for Dutch Ministries of Environment (VROM) and Economic Affairs (EZ), The Hague 20. Teuteberg F, Hempel M, Schebeck L (eds) (2019) Progress in life cycle assessment 2018. Springer 21. Sterman JD (2000) Business dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. McGraw-Hill Education, New York 22. Golroudbary SR, Zahraee SM (2015) System dynamics model for optimizing the recycling and collection of waste material in a closed-loop supply chain. Simul Model Pract Theory 53:88– 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.simpat.2015.02.001 23. Glöser-Chahoud S, Pfaff M, Walz R, Schultmann F (2019) Simulating the service lifetimes and storage phases of consumer electronics in Europe with a cascade stock and flow model. J Clean Prod 213:1313–1321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.244 24. Franco MA (2019) A system dynamics approach to product design and business model strategies for the circular economy. J Clean Prod 241:118327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2019.118327 25. Ding Z, Zhu M, Tam VWY, Yi G, Tran CNN (2018) A system dynamics-based environmental benefit assessment model of construction waste reduction management at the design and construction stages. J Clean Prod 176:676–692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.101 26. Public Network LCA demo tool (requires registration). Network LCA service will be replaced by a new version at the end of year 2023. https://modellingfactory.org/services#lca

Part IV

Product and Process Design

Chapter 19

Circular Furniture Design: A Case Study from Swedish Furniture Industry Linnea Ankarberg, Nazlı Terzioğlu, and Erik Sundin

19.1

Introduction

Reducing environmental impact is one of the most pronounced arguments for encouraging businesses to change from a linear business model to a circular one. A study conducted by the research institute of Sweden [1] shows that furniture manufacturing within a circular economy (CE), compared with a traditional business model, could reduce the climate impact by approximately 20–40% [1]. Many furniture manufacturers have already adapted their manufacturing processes for reduced environmental impact. However, other changes are needed to transition the furniture industry to a circular one [1]. Design for disassembly is one of these changes that needed to be implemented to increase the circularity of furniture. Remanufacturing is an industrial process in which furniture can be restored or upgraded to meet new customer needs. In previous studies, it has been shown that remanufacturing is a preferable environmental option in comparison to new manufacturing and/or recycling, especially when it comes to a natural resource perspective [2]. In year 2015, the United States remanufactured furniture held approximately 14% of the market shares, while at the same time in Europe it was as low as 0.4% [3, 4]. This shows that there is a big potential to grow the market share of remanufactured furniture in Europe and Sweden. Disassembly is a crucial part of repair, remanufacturing, and recycling activities in a circular economy. The concept of Design for Disassembly, DfD, means that the design of a product is adapted during product development so that disassembly takes place in a simple way [5]. The concept of DfD was described in 1992 by Boothroyd and Alting, via Talens Pieró et al. [6], as a method that could solve future problems

L. Ankarberg · E. Sundin Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden N. Terzioğlu (✉) Brunel Design School, Brunel University London, London, UK © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_19

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of remanufacturing and reuse. When using DfD, a component, or a combination of components, can be dismantled without destroying them, which then creates conditions for upgrading, reuse. and repair [6]. Mule [5] describes DfD as a way to re-create value for products that are at the end of their service life and believes that the ability to disassemble a product provides many benefits, both economic and environmental. Despite the many benefits of DfD, for a long time it has been a neglected method [7], but Mule in 2012 predicted it would be a growing area in the industry. A driving force for the development of DfD has been legislation. Bogue [7] describes how in many countries, laws and regulations direct manufacturers to increase the disassembly potential of their products. Besides, laws and regulations, labels and certifications also encourage businesses to produce more environmentally friendly products. European Furniture Group (EFG) is a furniture company that strives to have a product range with high-quality and a long lifetime. In order to ensure quality, EFG makes sure that their products fulfill requirements from various labels and certifications, e.g., EU ECO-label and Möbelfakta (Swedish reference and labeling system for furniture). These different certifications and labels place emphasis on the product disassembly as it enables closing the material loops through repairing, remanufacturing, and recycling. This chapter explores the possibilities of adapting the design of one of their products for disassembly.

19.1.1

Aim

The aim of this chapter is to investigate how companies in the furniture industry can increase the circularity of their products by applying a DfD strategy to a product from EFG. The following research questions has been set to fulfill the aim. RQ1: What does the method Design for Disassembly, DfD, mean for the furniture industry; What are the advantages and disadvantages of applying DfD? RQ2: How can EFG use, and apply, the Design for Disassembly method to increase the reusing, recycling, and repairing capability of their existing products?

19.1.2

Methodology

One of EFGs products was chosen to explore the possibilities of DfD. To create an understanding of the problems with the chosen product, user studies were conducted. This was made by observing and interviewing users while they were disassembling the product. The general purpose of an observation is to gain knowledge about a process by see how a real user behaves [8] In total, four user studies were made, three with users without any expert knowledge and one with an experienced user whose work is related to furniture assembly. After the user studies, affinity diagramming

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Fig. 19.1 Research methodology diagram shows the five phases of the research process

was used to analyze the interview transcript and the notes taken in connection with the observation. Making an affinity diagram is a way of capturing insights and observations from observations, on sticky notes, so that different design implications can be considered individually [9]. The affinity diagramming resulted in identification of the problem areas of the product. This chapter includes three case studies that present existing furniture that were designed for disassembly. The case studies also show what design for disassembly means for the furniture industry and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of applying the method. Wikberg Nilsson et al. [10] describe that it is important to have an understanding of other competing products in order to provide ideas for new products. It can also be a great way for a designer to see similar cases and design processes [9]. Different design methods were used to find solutions to the problem areas. Initially, a brainstorming session was held with the R&D manager of the EFG. Brainstorming is a method that is beneficial for most of the design processes, but it should be implemented at an early stage of the design process, immediately after a design problem is defined [11]. The outcomes of the brainstorming session were later implemented during both sketching and prototyping. Sketching was used to visualize the ideas. Sketching is a good tool to both investigate and communicate a design proposal and it can also be used for decision-making [11]. The results of the brainstorming and sketching exercises were evaluated with the R&D manager. Finally, a prototype was made in the workshop at the facilities of EFG. Threedimensional prototypes are a good way to quickly test and evaluate different design proposals [11]. To conclude, the five phases of the research process and the methods used in this research are presented in Fig. 19.1.

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Theoretical Background

There are several different techniques for how a company can practically apply DfD, but a correctly executed DfD includes both material selection, the design of components, and the choice of joining methods [7]. Application of DfD takes place early in the design phase. Talens Peieró et al. [6] describe that most design changes made to increase the possibility of disassembly are very small and do not need significantly affect product performance. Mule [5] describes DfD as a way to use different assembly techniques that ultimately facilitate disassembly. By thinking through the product’s disassembly already at an early stage can provide environmental benefits at the later stages of the product’s lifespan [12]. DfD is also helpful in decreasing the use of raw materials thorough extending the lifespan of products. The disassembly of a product can involve higher costs as it is an extra process [13]. Much of the disassembly for remanufacturing is done manually, which can also contribute to large costs [14]. Another problem that can occur during disassembly is the required large amount of time. Uhlmann and Nayim [15] therefore believe that it is important to have innovative disassembly techniques and solutions in order to be able to quickly and efficiently separate a product into its components, as this can otherwise involve large costs. A disassembled component or core can in turn mean lower costs for the remanufactured product [13]. Due to the many overheads, it is also important to define the purpose of disassembly [14]. For a product to be reused, disassembly must take place without damaging the components, which can then generate a greater value, while a product to be recycled does not need the same care [15]. Bogue [7] also believes that it is important to define what should happen to the components after disassembly as it has a major impact on material selection.

19.2.1

Disassembly Guidelines

There are many guidelines for the application of DfD to a product in the design phase. Different authors have researched and summarized different frameworks. As early as 1994, Dowie and Simon [16] presented a solid list of disassembly guidelines. They believe, for example, that it is important to design so that the number of separate components is minimized. Lewis and Gertsakis [17] also mention the important points to think about DfD. They describe, for example, that it is important that any sorting instructions and recycling instructions should be molded into parts where possible, such as plastic parts. In the project circular furniture flows, Jangfall and Lundberg write [18] that it is important to design so that the disassembly will damage the components as little as possible. Similarly, Go et al. [19] discuss that standardized parts and joining methods should be used to a maximum extent to enable easy disassembly of the product and they also provide design guidelines in

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Table 19.1 Summary of DfD-guidelines based on [16–18] Minimize the number of separate components [16–18] Minimize the number of different used materials [16, 17] Make sure that the disassembly is able to be performed by few, easy to use, and standardized tools. Which also can reduce the number of changes of tools [16, 17] Mark up details for easier identification. For example, molded information in plastic products [16, 17] Make sure that fixing points and attachments are easily accessible [16–18] Use simple joining methods. For example. Rivets and gluing should be avoided in favor of simpler joining methods such as snap fasteners and Velcro [16–18] Avoid joining methods that can damage materials and components. For example. Rivets and nails [18] Make sure that the components with the highest value are easily accessible and easy to disassemble [16, 17] Design for easy disassembly that damages the components as little as possible [17, 18] Use as few joining methods as possible [16, 17] Make sure that the parts that cannot be reused or recycled are easily accessible [16, 17] Make the design as modular as possible with separated functions [16, 18]

their article for designing recoverable products. A summary of the various guidelines can be seen in Table 19.1. 19.2.1.1

Case Studies: Existing Business Examples

To be able to understand the current work that is being made in the furniture business, three different case studies have been conducted. The case studies state an example of how the furniture industry can develop in the future and show a successful way of adapting their products for repair, reuse and recycling.

19.2.1.1.1

Swedese

Swedese is a Swedish furniture manufacturer and an example of a company that have changed their business model and business to increase the reuse and repair of their products [20]. The company is the manufacturer of the “Lamino” armchair, a Swedish design classic, which was designed as early as 1956. Laminated wood is the main material in the armchair and the seat and backrest often have an upholstery in leather or fabric. According to the Swedese, the armchair is made to last a lifetime—both the design and the material. Wood is a more durable material than fabric or leather. Therefore, the upholstery is often worn and torn long before the wooden construction. With that in mind, Swedese decided to start their own education to certify upholsterers around Sweden. By having their own certification, they can ensure the quality of both the product and their brand. They want to encourage their customers to repair their products when

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they get worn and torn, instead of throwing them away [21]. Swedese’s work towards a circular business model has also inspired their suppliers and resellers to change their way of working [20]. The suppliers and resellers have, for example, changed rivets and glue to Velcro to make it easier to change an upholster.

19.2.1.1.2

Flokk

A company who has been one of the pioneers in this field is the Norwegian furniture company Flokk. They have well established products on the Nordic market and use circular working methods with the goal to design and produce products with long usage time. Therefore, they highly value the renovation of their old products. Flokk describes that they are a user driven company which is not governed by trends to the same extent as others. This encourages them to invest in product improvements rather than new products. In the spring of 2019, Flokk tried the concept of selling office chairs as service. For example, this can be compared with leasing of cars. It was a pilot project that aimed to lead them even closer to a circular economy [22]. One of the most well-known projects of Flokk’s is the office chair RH New Logic. The marketing campaign for this office chair, as an environmentally friendly product, has been very successful. RH New Logic is produced by recycled materials, such as recycled plastic, aluminum and steel. The office chair is also easy to disassemble. This has been enabled by making all parts easy to remove. To facilitate the repair, Flokk also ensures the availability of spare parts which can prolong the using phase. Flokk is also making the disassembly easier by excluding glue as a fastener for fabric. Instead of glue, they have developed a “Spider mechanism” that, together with a drawstring, makes it possible to both attach and remove the upholstery of the office chair, see Fig. 19.2 [22].

Fig. 19.2 The “spider mechanism” developed by Flokk to tighten the upholstery on an office chair without glue and rivets [22]

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Orange Box: Remade

Orangebox Remade are products that have been given a new life, with a new guarantee, through renovation. Orangebox is a British company, with headquarter in London, working with office furniture. Orangebox Remade is an initiative where they take advantage of obsolete office furniture and restore them to new condition. To be able to reuse and repair as much of the products as possible, they have adapted their design for this purpose. With that, the company wants to achieve an approach that they call closed loop, which is a part of their work towards a circular economy [23]. An example of a case where Orangebox has improved their product is an office chair called G64. The office chair is a popular chair in Europe and is durable and have a long using phase. Orangebox has, through Orangebox Remade, developed a version of the chair they have chosen to call the G64-R. They have changed the new version so that 98% of the chair is either possible to reuse or recycle. The new version, which is remanufactured, uses 75% less water during production and emits 60% less carbon dioxide compared to the original seat [23].

19.3 19.3.1

The Case of Savo JOI User Studies

The participants were instructed to try to disassemble the product as much as possible, after which they were not given any further instructions, but they had the possibility to ask if they needed help or instructions. During the disassembly, the participants were asked to “think out loud” which was part of the interviews. After the disassembly, the participants were asked more questions of the design. For example, questions like, “which part was the hardest to understand?.” Afterwards, the result of the observations and interviews was analyzed using the affinity diagram method. All participants had a similar process. Every one of them started the disassembly by removing the visible screws—which in this case detached the seating from the lower part of the stool. All participants found one of the unscrewing steps confusing because the screw did not have a function. So, unscrewing it made no difference. Hereafter, the course of action differed for the participants. Some participants studied the stool carefully without moving forward with the disassembly. Others tried to pull the seat bracket to see if it can be loosened. Common to all participants was that no one could proceed with the disassembly after that point without asking for help. They therefore needed to know that the seat attachment can be removed with the help of a rubber mallet (Fig. 19.3). It can be difficult to disassemble a product for the first time without getting any help. There can be confusions of what actions that can be made and what can damage the products. After the disassembly, Participant 1 got the question whether he/she

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Fig. 19.3 Picture of the original Sava Joi stool that was chosen for this research [24]

had dared to use the rubber mallet without instructions. He/she described that he/she would not have done that. Not without instructions. Then I would be a little unsure. But if someone had said that it was just stuck with friction, I would probably have dared. . . . . . but I would not do this to my own product at home. I should have wanted to disassemble the product with all parts still intact. You don’t want to break it. —Participant 1, 2020-03-04

After the seat bracket was disassembled, some confusion arose again for some of the participants. Two of the participants saw the lower part of a screw by looking at the underside of the stool and expressed some frustration that it was possible to see the screws but not possible to do anything to it. It’s frustrating to see the screws without accessing them. —Participant 1, 2020-03-04

The upholstery was then disassembled by removing the rivets by using a knife and then the upholstery could be removed by opening a zipper. One of the participants then had problems with the disassembly of the steel plate covering the bottom of the stool. Using a hammer, a screwdriver and a knife did not disassemble the steel plate. It just damaged the surface and the shape of the steel.

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Affinity Diagramming

The interviews and the observations were analyzed by using the method affinity diagramming. By identifying the frequently used phrases and problems, clusters were created. The clusters represent the problem areas with the furniture disassembly as illustrated in Fig. 19.4. One of the problems was that none of the participants knew the next step after removing the seat bracket. Everyone removed the nut even though it was not needed and after that there was no indication of what should be done next. Another problem was that the upholstery was screwed on and riveted. During the interviews, several of the participants pointed out that this was the part that they most likely would have dared to do something with and wanted to do something with only when it could probably get worn or dirty quickly. I think the upholstery would get worn out or dirty and I think maybe they wanted to vary the look by changing the upholstery. I also think that other colors could get sun-bleached more easily. —Participant 3, 2020-04-01

Another problem was that the steel plate was glued to the base plate. This meant that it could be hard to remove and it was an irreversible step. According to EFG themselves, this was one of the parts which most likely will get scuffed. There was also an issue with the screw which did not have a function. This confused all of the participants. There was another problem that arose when the seat is unscrewed but the bracket remained. At that stage, all participants needed to ask for help. All participants had problems with moving on after the seat was unscrewed.

SOLUTIONS Instructions Remove rivets

PROBLEM AREAS Insecurity of how to proceed after removing nut on top of gas spring

Hide nut

All of the users removed the nut on top of the gas spring – without any result

Velcro

Questions regarding the removal of the seat

The upholstery is fastened with rivets and a zipper

The wood part and the foam is not separable The steel part is glued to the bottom plate

Use friction instead

Velcro

Visible, but not removable screws is causing confusion

Hide screws

Fig. 19.4 Illustration of the different problem areas that correspond to clusters that emerged from the Affinity Diagramming and the “Solutions” which is the results from the idea generation

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It was thus a critical step to inform the users that it was possible to remove the bracket. Another problem identified was related to the disassembly of the rubber ring. The swinging function of the stool is created with the help of this rubber ring. However, it is impossible to disassemble it from the steel part that it is attached to as it is not possible to manually dial such a force to separate them. 19.3.1.2

Design Solutions According to DfD-Guidelines

When the problem areas where determined, a creative phase followed to find solutions to the different problem areas. The final identified problem is related to the plastic rings on the gas piston. They cannot be removed so this means that they cannot be recycled. This was made by sketching, brainstorming, and prototyping. The creative solution phase was carried out with the help of the EFG staff including their R&D manager. Sketches and photos of the prototypes from the design stage can be seen in the Appendix. During the brainstorming, sketching, and prototyping, the summary of the DfD guidelines presented in Table 19.1 was used as a foundation to all of the ideas. The different solutions that came up during the creative phase and the idea generation are presented in Fig. 19.4 next to the corresponding problem area. One of the solutions that came up early in the idea generation phase was to use friction instead of gluing the steel plate on to the wooden bottom. This was tested by using a sealing strip made of rubber. This was very effective while the stool was standing upright but had some issues when carrying the stool. Using Velcro was another idea to make the disassembly process easier. The Velcro was placed in different positions in order to get a firm grip and try to avoid any movement of the steel plate. One of the different placements for the Velcro was to put them over the edge and therefore “lock in” the steel-plate. This was very effective and was later to be the performed way to do it by the R&D manager of EFG. Another idea was to use strong magnets. This was efficient for the disassembly aspect but turned out to be a major change in the assembly and time consuming due to the need of accuracy in the positioning of the magnets. Other changes that were made was the removal of the rivets. The upholstery was attached to the seating both with rivets and a zipper. The rivets hindered any movements of the upholstery which was minor problem and a visual issue only. Therefore, a decision of removing the rivets was made and the upholstery was attached by the zipper only.

19.4

Discussion

RQ1: What does the method Design for Disassembly, DfD, mean for the furniture industry; What are the advantages and disadvantages of applying DfD?

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The case studies show what DfD can mean for the furniture industry and for those companies that choose to adapt their business model to a circular economy. There are mainly environmental benefits of implementing DfD, which not only affect the company but also the earth globally. There are also other benefits to transitioning towards a CE. An example is that the employees might feel satisfied with working in a workplace that contributes to a more sustainable society [25]. Customers also gain financial advantages by choosing remanufactured furniture, rather than newly produced ones, as the price is often reduced as a result of the remanufacturing [25]. By using DfD and DfRem, companies can meet the customer needs and the demand that exists for more sustainable products. The companies that adopt a more circular approach can also gain economic benefits through these concurred market shares. However, there is an attitude among some of the today’s furniture manufacturers that they are afraid of the implications on their sales of new furniture affected by selling remanufactured furniture [26] which can hinder the work towards a CE. There are also disadvantages with DfD. One of them is that the method may require one or more extra manufacturing processes [13]. This can become costly both in terms of time and money. In that case, innovative disassembly techniques might be used to reduce both the number of different stages in the manufacturing process and the time it takes to perform the disassembly. Another disadvantage is that DfD might not always result in a reduction of the negative environmental impacts. There are also examples where the ecological footprint was increased despite of the circular approach and the Product-Service System (PSS) used [1]. One such example includes the cases when customers show less caution as they do not own the products, therefore they wear out faster [1]. Similar problems can also be observed related to customers’ repair behavior. We discussed that DfD enables repair of products but there are a multitude of factors that affect users’ repair behavior which should be taken into account while designing for repair [27]. Furniture is often suitable for DfD, as it often does not contain hazardous materials. Otherwise, the disassembly process could pose a danger to anyone who carries out the disassembly. Another point that makes furniture suitable for DfD is that they often do not have digital or technological parts which enhance the possibilities for DfD since technical solutions often quickly age Hatcher et al. [14]. The industry that has been studied in this work, furniture for public environments, is also particularly suitable for DfD because furniture for public areas is often manufactured with high-quality materials for long use life. Costa et al. [28] describe how a system with products as a Service (PaaS), a so-called product-service system (PSS), is a successful way for the furniture industry to work towards a CE especially when combined with product remanufacturing [29]. By delivering a furnished office in the form of a service instead of buying the furniture, Costa et al. [28] describe that the climate footprint can be reduced by up to 50%. The crucial thing for CE is though, according to Bolin et al. [1], that the lifespan is extended through the various measures taken and that circular business models have the potential to reduce environmental impact. This, by making sure the material used can be reused and remanufactured. Therefore, it is important that the circular business model actually leads to reduced material use.

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One problem with long-lasting products is that they might go out of fashion. Therefore, each company must make the decision of whether a product should be disassembled to replace parts that are not just trendy anymore or if replacement of parts only should take place when there is the need of repair. Regardless the reason, Bolin et al. [1] emphasize the importance that the replacement of the part can be made without damaging any of the other, still functional parts. Öhgren et al. [26] believe that a PSS would mean more environmental and financial benefits compared to a traditional linear business model, which is also in line with previous economic and environmental evaluations of PSSs [30]. On the other hand, Öhgren et al. say, the interest in buying remanufactured furniture is greater than the interest in renting furniture, which must be taken into account. RQ2: How can EFG use, and apply, the Design for Disassembly method to increase the reusing, recycling, and repairing capability of their existing products? While working with the case of the Savo Joi stool, the theories collected during the literature review were applied. By interviewing users and observing them during a disassembly, different problem areas of the Savo Joi stool were identified. The Savo Joi case enables EFG to continue their work towards simpler disassembly processes. The case with EFG and the Savo Joi stool has been a way of applying DfD and examine what design changes can be made to ease the disassembly of a product based on the theory findings. This example shows how EFG, and other companies, can use and apply DfD to their products. EFG wants to decrease the negative environmental effects of their products focusing on DfD. They need a way to determine which of their products are suitable to implement DfD. Abuzied et al. [12] argue that it is important to implement DfD in the entire production department, and at the early stages if the design process of their new products to be able to solve the problems with disassembly. Thus, this chapter shows that it is not too late to make design changes to an already existing product. But the manufacturing process needs to be considered, which has been discussed with EFG in this case. The communication between the product development and remanufacturing staff is crucial to be able to make the right design decisions. Lindkvist [31] describes that it is important that the developers get feedback from the remanufacturing staff in order for the designers to take the right decisions regarding the construction of the product. It is also important that those who work with product development has a good understanding of DfD and DfRem and how the different processes can affect each other. There are several tools that may be suitable, when implementing DfD, to use to simplify the work for product developers, for example, the RemPro matrix, described by Sundin [32]. Therefore, it is important that EFG, and other companies that want to implement a more circular approach and DfD, assimilate the right knowledge. This chapter deals with a case where an already existing product is changed to simplify the disassembly. For a company that wants to apply DfD, this case is an example. However, it is recommended in the future work for EFG that they implement DfD early in the design phase for new products and that EFG have a holistic perspective for the entire product development process.

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Conclusions

This research was conducted to investigate, and show, that it is possible for companies in the furniture industry to change their approach and implement DfD to their existing products. By applying the DfD method, companies in the furniture industry can increase the possibilities of disassembling their products, which increases the possibilities for reuse and recycling. Implementing DfD in the furniture industry has environmental and economic benefits including increased competitive advantages, marketing advantages also social benefits for the employees of the company. One drawback with DfD is that it affects the manufacturing, assembly as well as the disassembly processes. That is why it is important to apply DfD with a holistic perspective. Although this work shows that it is possible to make design changes to an existing product, it is recommended to introduce DfD early in the design phase. This means that ad hoc solutions can be avoided, and problems can be eliminated in an early phase rather than investigating them afterwards. DfD can be applied in many ways. This chapter and the case with the stool Savo Joi show one way to use DfD. The user studies that were carried out in this research showed the problem areas for this specific product. Changing the design of the product simplified both the disassembly of the product and the understanding of how to separate different components. This chapter provides critical insights into circular furniture design through enabling design for disassembly to promote the environmentally conscious design of products. The industrial contribution of this chapter is that it brings value to furniture designers and manufacturers who want to design products for longer and multiple lifecycles. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the European Furniture Group (EFG), for their cooperation during the work with this chapter.

Appendix Sketches and photos of the prototypes of the generated design solutions.

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References 1. Bolin L, Rex E, Røyne F, Norrblom H-L (2017) Hållbarhetsanalys av cirkulära möbelflöden, s. l.: RISE 2. Sundin E, Lee HM (2011) What way is remanufacturing good for the environment? In: Proceedings of the 7th international symposium on environmentally conscious design and inverse manufacturing (EcoDesign-11), ISBN: 978-94-007-3010-6, November 30–December 2, Kyoto, Japan, pp 551–556 3. Davies W (2015) Keynote presentation and world remanufacturing summit. Holland, Amsterdam. www.daviesoffice.com

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4. Parker D, Riley K, Robinson S, Symington H, Tewson J, Jansson K, Ramkumar S, Peck D (2015) ERN—European remanufacturing network, remanufacturing market study. European Remanufacturing Council, Delft. www.remanufacturing.eu/assets/pdfs/remanufacturingmarketstudy.pdf 5. Mule JY (2012) Design for disassembly approaches on product development. Int J Sci Eng Res 3(6) 6. Talens Peiró L, Ardente F, Mathieux F (2017) Design for disassembly criteria in EU product policies for a more circular economy a method for analyzing battery packs in PC-tablets and subnotebooks. J Ind Ecol 21:731–741 7. Bogue R (2007) Design for disassembly: a critical twenty-first century discipline. Assem Autom 27:285–289 8. Bohgard M, Karlsson S, Lovén E, Mikaelsson LÅ, Mårtensson L, Osvalder AL, Rose L, Ulfvengren P (2015) Arbete och teknik på människans villkor. 3:1 red. Prevent, Stockholm 9. Hanington B, Martin B (2012) Universal methods of design: 100 ways to explore complex problems, develop innovative strategies, and deliver effective design. u.o.:Quarto Publishing Group USA 10. Wikberg Nilsson Å, Ericson Å, Törlind P (2015) Design process och metod. 1:1 red. Studentlitteratur AB, Lund 11. van Boijen A, Daalhuizen J, Zijlstra J, van der Schoor R (2013) Delft design guide. 2:a upplagan red. BIS Publishers, Amsterdam 12. Abuzied H, Senbel H, Awad M, Abbas A (2019) A review of advances in design for disassembly with active disassembly applications. Eng Sci Technol 23:618 13. Soh S, Ong S, Nee A (2014) Design for disassembly for remanufacturing: methodology and technology. s.l. Elsevier B.V 14. Hatcher GD, Ijomah WL, Windmill JFC (2013) Design for remanufacturing in China: a case study of electrical and electronic equipment. J Remanuf 3 15. Uhlmann E, Nayim B (2007) Processes and tools for disassembly. In: Seliger G (ed) Sustainability in manufacturing: recovery of resources in product and material cycles. Springer, Berlin, pp 217–235 16. Dowie T, Simon M (1994) Guidelines for designing for disassembly and recycling. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester 17. Lewis H, Gertsakis J (2001) Design + environment: a global guide to designing greener goods. Greenleaf Publishing Limited, Sheffield 18. Jangfall L, Lundberg P (2017) How to design with aging and wear in mind. https://cirkularitet. se/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Guide-for-designing-with-aging-and-wear-in-mind.pdf. Accessed 1 Mar 2020 19. Go TF, Wahab DA, Hishamuddin H (2015) Multiple generation life-cycles for product sustainability: the way forward. J Clean Prod 95:16–29 20. cirkularitet.se (2019) Cirkulära affärer slår igenom i möbelbranschen. https://cirkularitet.se/ cirkulara-affarer-slar-igenom-i-mobelbranschen/. Accessed 12 May 2020 21. Swedese (2017) Swedese repair. https://swedese.se/press/swedese-repair. Accessed 29 Jan 2020 22. cirkularitet.se (2020) Cirkulär design—Nya RH Logic från Flokk. https://cirkularitet.se/wpcontent/uploads/2020/02/Snabbfakta-Cirkulär-design-Flokks-RH-New-Logic_.pdf. Accessed 3 Mar 2020 23. Orangebox (2017) Remade. https://www.orangebox.com/about/?o=overlay/article/remade. Accessed 9 Feb 2020 24. Savo (u.d.) Savo Joi—allows excellent freedom of movement. https://imagebank.savo.com/get/ 54675b11-5ca2-3c69-9f56-28091bea273b/medium/SAV000761_medium.jpg. Accessed 7 Jul 2021 25. cirkularitet.se (2020) Cirkulär ekonomi—Vad är det och varför ska vi jobba med detta?. https:// cirkularitet.se/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Snabbfakta_Cirkulär-ekonomi-Vad-är-det-ochvarför-ska-vi-jobba-med-detta_2.pdf. Accessed 12 May 2020

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26. Öhgren M, Milios L, Dalhammar C, Lindahl M (2019) Public procurement of reconditioned furniture and the potential transition to product service systems solutions: a new methodology to analyze the functional and physical architecture of product service systems solutions. Elsevier B.V, Hong Kong 27. Terzioğlu N (2021) Repair motivation and barriers model: investigating user perspectives related to product repair towards a circular economy. J Clean Prod 289:125644. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125644 28. Costa F, Prendeville S, Beverley K, Teso G, Brooker C (2015) Sustainable product-service systems for an office furniture manufacturer: how insights from a pilot study can inform PSS design. s.l., Elsevier B.V 29. Sundin E, Bras B (2005) Making functional sales environmentally and economically beneficial through product remanufacturing. J Clean Prod 13:913–925 30. Lindahl M, Sundin E, Sakao T (2014) Environmental and economic benefits of Integrated Product Service Offerings quantified with real business cases. J Clean Prod 64:288–296 31. Lindkvist L (2020) Improving design for remanufacturing through feedback from remanufacturing to design. Division of Manufacturing Engineering Department of Management and Engineering Linköping University, Linköping 32. Sundin E (2004) Product and process design for successful remanufacturing. Division of Production Systems Department of Mechanical Engineering Linköpings Universitet, Linköping

Chapter 20

Current Challenges in the Lifetime Extension of Smartphones Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen, Susanna Horn, Jáchym Judl, Jyri Hanski, Marjaana Karhu, and Teuvo Uusitalo

20.1

Introduction

Keeping materials in use, retaining their value as high as possible, and avoiding material degradation and waste are the key strategies of circular economy (CE). However, in terms of electric devices, these strategies are not yet implemented. Currently, the average lifetime of electric devices is relatively low, as the rapid technological development of devices leads to outdated solutions in a few years’ time. Furthermore, electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) streams are one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe, and their recycling and recovery challenges increase due to the high number of elements in low concentrations in the devices. Many raw materials used in the devices are challenging, such as critical, conflict and hazardous materials. Due to overcome these challenges of electrical and electronics sector, there is currently acknowledged the importance of design for circular economy in the next-generation electrical and electronic devices [1, 2]. These circular design strategies cover ‘narrowing,’ ‘slowing’ and ‘closing’ the material loops [3]. Especially, ‘Slowing’-strategy targets to extending the lifetime of the devices, followed that also the need of the materials can be reduced. Smartphones, in particular, are one of these devices with low average lifetimes. Still they are a crucial part of modern life as more than 90% of adults in many European Union (EU) member states own one [1]. Taking a closer look at the main components of a smartphone, it includes electronics, screen, battery and casing (Fig. 20.1). The electronic components of a smartphone can be further divided into the printed circuit board (PCB), magnets, wiring, microphone, soldering and chips. P. Kivikytö-Reponen (✉) · J. Hanski · M. Karhu · T. Uusitalo Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland e-mail: paivi.kivikyto-reponen@vtt.fi S. Horn · J. Judl Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, Finland © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_20

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4 main assemblies

40-50 elements

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Wiring, micro electronics Cu Ag Au Ta Joints, solders, magnets, vibrations Ni Dy Pr Tb Gd Ns Pb System circuits Si O Sb As P Ga

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Touch screen In Sn O Glass Al Si O K Colours Y La Pr Eu Gd Tr Dy

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Lithium ion battery Li Co C Al O Ni Mn

Light, fire protection, electromagnetic interference suppression C Mg Br Ni

Fig. 20.1 Smartphone requires large number of materials and components to support the various functionalities of smartphones. (Modified from [4])

In addition, the use of a smartphone requires the charger and other accessories such as cases and headphones. These components require wide variety of special materials for achieving required performance. Materials contain typically several elements, and example, a typical smartphone may contain approximately 40–50 different elements [5, 6] with the amounts and compositions varying between smartphone models. Figure 20.2 depicts a typical life cycle of a smartphone, starting from the mining and processing of primary or secondary raw materials, followed by manufacturing of components, smartphone assembly, sales and use, reuse, remanufacturing and upgrade and recycling. However, at current state, the total value chain of smartphone is mostly linear, whereas Fig. 20.2 represents the goal of having a circular life cycle [7]. The sustainability challenges during the entire life cycle of a smartphone include issues such as emissions, energy and water use and environmental risks in the extraction and processing of raw materials, energy consumption during their use phase and contribution of smartphone disposal to the accumulation of e-waste. Moreover, social issues such as poor working conditions and adverse health effects, corruption and conflicts can be identified during different life cycle stages [7]. Currently, the short average lifetime of a smartphone is a circularity gap. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to study the smartphone lifetime extension challenges and potential solutions through understanding the impacts of design, business strategies in Finland. Several life cycle stages such as design for durability and repair, business strategies for retail, and use phases are detailed and discussed. Additionally, this

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packaging mobile subscription accessories

transport retail

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cloud mobile network use phase

manufacturing remanufacturing

maintenance and repair end of 1st life

raw materials extraction disposal design

recycling

Fig. 20.2 A life cycle of a smartphone

study reviews current European policies as a basis for Finnish national policies, and potential state-of-the art solutions, means and actions to extend the lifetime of a smartphone. Finally, the best practices for lifetime extension are discussed, and further development needs are identified.

20.2 Materials and Methods This study focuses on the current challenges in the lifetime extension of smartphones in Finland. The factors influencing the lifetime are identified through a literature survey and sector-specific interviews and cover issues such as design-related decision-making, novel business strategies and policy framework in the EU. A literature review of selected state-of-the-art lifetime extension strategies, business models and policies were carried out through search engines such as Scopus, Google Scholar and Google, and using search terms related to design, business models and policies. The terms used in the search included lifetime extension, durability, repair, circular design, circular business models and Ecodesign related products in general and to smartphones. Finally, the findings were assessed through expert analysis. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to gather insights about what the drivers behind the purchasing decision of Finnish customers, including the consideration of circular economy practices during purchasing process. Additionally, the interviews aimed to identify the key challenges preventing circularity, reusability,

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repair and lifetime extension in products. In total, six interviews were conducted (each including 1–5 interviewees). The interviewees represented consumer and organizational customer sectors as well as new and refurbished device sales. The persons were either in charge, of the organizations’ sustainability matters or represented sales divisions and responded to the interview without all wanting their names and affiliations disclosed. The organizations, however, represented the largest smartphone retailers in Finland. The interview questionnaire covered issues related to the drivers behind the purchasing decisions (e.g. technical issues, sustainability and environmental considerations, used raw materials, recyclability, ability to repair), typical length of life cycles, main restrictions behind lifetime extension, future sectoral trends in terms of sustainability and the main challenges related to more sustainable use of raw materials used in smartphones. The interviews were transcribed and jointly assessed in line with a thematic content analysis.

20.3

Challenges and Opportunities in the Lifetime Extension

Smartphones are part of consumer electronics market segment covering wide range of other products such as televisions, tablets, headphones and audio devices. The European Union consumer electronics sector represented 1.32% of household expenditure and manufacturing of consumer electronics reached a turnover of €60 billion in 2017 [7]. High sales along with the requirements of developing the ICT infrastructure increases for example the demand for precious and critical metals and other raw materials. This increase often outweighs the positive impacts of decreasing size and weight of smartphones [8]. By extending the lifetime of the devices, the demand of these raw materials should be reduced. Finding ways to extend the lifetime of smartphones is of importance in order to improve the sustainability and circularity of the smartphone’s entire life cycle. The lifespan or mobile phones of is reported to be 26 months in European countries [9]. However, the interviews suggested an even shorter average of 1–2 years as the average lifespan. Smartphones can become obsolete in a few years also due to the lack of software updates or support. Furthermore, smartphones are easily exposed to failures due to dropping on a hard surfaces or immersion in water. Additionally, smartphones are often not easily repairable due to various reasons: the availability of spare parts, the lack of repair skills, expensive labour costs, or lack of knowledge about when smartphone can be repaired. That makes it less affordable, or even sometimes prohibitively expensive, to repair a broken smartphone in the country of use [10]. From an environmental and cost perspective, it is more viable to exhaust the possibilities of reusing the devices, the components or the compounds, before recycling the materials on an elemental level. Going all the way to elemental level material recovery, the process includes sorting and collection, mechanical pre-treatment and separation, and metallurgical refinement, all requiring energy,

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chemicals and water. As for improving the recyclability and yield of the recycling process, an optimal design of the device would also need design for recycling, for example, to utilize metallurgical information such as the carrier metals impact on the recovery potential of the elements with the current recycling technologies [11].

20.3.1

Smartphone Lifetime Extension Opportunities

The design phase may determine as much as 80% of the environmental impact of a product [12], as important choices affecting environmental, social and economic sustainability are made during this stage. Yet, there exist very little case studies of those companies having implemented sustainable (or environmental) product design in a systematic manner [13]. Salo et al. [14] have conducted an extensive survey in the Nordic countries, in which Ecodesign in IT and textile companies were studied, according to which only 27% of more than 100 respondents used Ecodesign tools; on the other hand, 54% said they were interested in the concept. With regards to design-related incentives or policies set by public bodies [15] interviews were conducted with nearly 50 companies, policy makers, and researchers who unanimously supported the circular economy standards and norms set by public bodies. There was a common need for standards increasing material efficiency, durability, repairs, and recyclability. However, Hartley et al. [15] emphasized that these standards or design policies should be prepared in collaboration with stakeholders. And in general, although the industry has historically had a negative attitude towards legislative changes, getting used to the new framework requirements has still often proceeded rapidly [16].

20.3.2

Design for Circular Economy Strategies

The design process typically starts by setting up goals and requirements and selecting potential approaches for achieving these goals. Design for circular economy and development of a typology of key concepts and terms have been reviewed by Hollander et al. [17] stating circular product design encompasses both design for product integrity and design for recycling. Product integrity covers longer lifetime strategies such as design for emotinal and physical durability, design for maintenance and upgrading and design for repair, design for refurbishment and design for remanufacturing [17]. Design for long lifetime can be also be based on following six product integrity strategies or their combinations formulated slightly different and including: design for attachment and trust, design for durability, design for standardization and compatibility, design for ease of maintenance and repair, design for adaptability and upgradability and design for dis- and reassembly [18]. Design for lifetime extension can also be presented through objectives aligned with the R strategies according to R9 framework [19], such as design for reuse, repair,

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Fig. 20.3 Examples of the DfX strategies for lifetime extension

refurbish, remanufacture and repurpose (Fig. 20.3). Lifetime extension product design strategies, and various combinations of the strategies support circular business models, encompassing both classic long-life models and performance-as-aservice type of models. Alternative ownership models and as-a-service models are discussed later in Sect. 20.3.5. Currently, the remanufacturing of the devices seems to be the only strategy to support the upgrade the devices to be as good as new ones. In fact, some producers may have take-back schemes, and are remanufacturing their products after which they can be labelled as ‘certified refurbished’ products [20]. However, smartphones are predominantly sold via service providers, for example, for a service period of 2 years after which customers are offered a new smartphone as part of prolonging their service contract [20]. Remanufacturing, with individual product tests and manual work, offers a way to customize the products with lower production costs; the sales prices can be kept at new product level or even below [20]. The scope of the study concerning product design is in design for physical durability and design for repair, excluding, for example, the software updates out of scope of this study. However, when discussing about the business strategies and alternatives of the phone ownership, the wider scope is taken into discussion, such as the complexity of the attachment and trust and other potential design for X strategies.

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291

Design for Durability and Repair

Durability refers typically to a physical durability and is a technical field of design. Durability can also be a material property to supporting product reliability in use beside the longer lifetime potential [18]. Design for durability targets to optimum mechanical, chemical. and thermal properties expected from a product. Therefore, it refers to physical properties and how they effect on the durability of the product in its operational environment, but sometimes emotional durability can be heard in discussions. Concerning physical durability, the product performance is improved with ‘durable’ materials, for example, against aging, fatigue, wear, or corrosion. Also, durability is linked with the easiness of disintegration and dismantling, and guarantees that the dismantled parts have sufficient remaining useful lifetime for reuse as components or as materials. The downside of efforts to increase durability can be that the more durable materials and components are more difficult or even impossible to recycle. Examples of this include composite materials or complex multilayer structures. Additionally, it is not rare to increase durability of materials by using critical raw materials or hazardous substances or reinforcements that are either more difficult or impossible to recycle. Therefore, in addition to design for durability, it should be coupled with design for recyclability to ensure circularity of the materials. The business strategy typically determines the product design targets, and whether or not products are designed to be easily maintained or hard to repair. This also impacts the availability of repair instructions. There exist business models, which hinder repair in some cases. Design for maintenance and repair can be controlled by the original manufacturers, example repairs carried out independently might lead to the loss of warranty [18]. Furthermore, repair requires competences and skills, as well as spare parts availability. Typical obstacles that hinder repair are the use of materials that are not repairable, the use of the joints that prevent disassembly, or complicated structures that make repair difficult, or lack of sufficient modularity. Ability to repair is also important on material level, whether the damaged material can be repaired or materials repairs itself, that is, as self-healing materials does [18]. Currently, however, the vast majority of smartphones are not designed to be easily repairable. Even batteries are typically not easily replaceable. Devices repaired by using non-OEM (non-Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts in some cases might not work properly [10]. Easy design for maintenance seems to be most obvious the design strategy, when the business model includes producers ownership [18] or maintenance is other way controlled by the manufacturer.

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Prompting Repairs

Consumers use smartphones until they reach the end of their first life. Lifetime of devices can be extended by reuse, repair, refurbishment or remanufacturing and supporting design strategies, especially design for dis- and reassembly, and design for standardization and compatibility. As total market of new devices in 2019 was 1.37 billion, the refurbished market totals already 15% of the new devices market. Market for refurbished smartphones has existed in developing countries since the 2000s and is becoming more popular also in developed countries due to a large amount of fully functional relatively new models becoming available in the secondhand market [7]. Rizos et al. [7] estimated that in case the sales of refurbished phones would rise from baseline of 10% to 30%, and the jobs would increase from baseline 20% or 30%. There are also communities that support the right to repair. Example, IFixit (https://www.ifixit.com/) is a global community platform which teaches people how to fix everyday products. On the site anyone can create a repair manual for a device and anyone can edit the existing set of manuals to improve them. Members can also buy repair kits and tools via the platform. The site has repair manuals for most smartphone brands and models. It also publishes a repairability score table for smartphones. Second example is The Repair Roundtable in Germany (https://en. runder-tisch-reparatur.de/) which encourages repair as a social good. It brings together representatives of industrial manufacturers, the repair industry, nongovernmental environmental and consumer protection organizations, scientists and community repair initiatives. The digital product information along the side of the product, including the use history, the information of the repairs and tailored repair instructions, would support several lifetime extension strategies. Digital product information can be in the form of material or product passport, for example, in a form of battery passport.

20.3.5

Alternative to Phone Ownership

Business models based on leasing or models that goes beyond the traditional leasing model, product-as-a-service model or performance-as-a-service can contribute to the extension of smartphones’ life cycle. The leasing company retains ownership of the phone and has an interest in keeping its value high, by repairing or upgrading it, in order to eventually sell it on. Whether the leasing models contribute to greater sustainability depends on what actually happens to the leased phones after they are returned to the service provider. Leasing a smartphone for a limited time (e.g. 1 year) after which it is sold on the second-hand market is one example of extending the product lifespan. Fairphone has developed Phone-as-a-service, a model that goes beyond the traditional leasing model. The focus of the value proposition here is not the

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ownership of the product itself, but on the performance of the product (the service). The service provider retains ownership and responsibility for the product, which incentivises the design of high quality, low maintenance and durable products. A key difference between traditional leasing and Phone-as-a-service, from the environmental point of view, is that in the leasing business model there is no incentive for extending the lifespan of the device once is has been sold to the second user. In Phone-as-a-service, the device, or its modules, can be leased to multiple subsequent customers. The only limitation is the lifetime of the modules which in part can be influenced by its design. For example, the more modular a phone is, the more suitable it may be to further optimize the value creation based on the economic life of individual modules rather than of entire devices.

20.3.6

Life Cycle Length from a Consumer Perspective

The purchase decision of consumers is driven by a thought process that leads a customer from identifying a need, generating options and choosing a specific product and brand. Little research has been carried out about which factors determine the choice of a smartphone [26, 27], but according to [21, 22], as well as the interviews of the study, consumers increasingly expect their electronic devices to be easy to dismantle, repair and recycle, thus having potential for relatively long life cycles. Extending the average use phase lowers the greenhouse gas emissions of smartphones as fewer devices need to be manufactured and therefore raw materials extracted [1]. It has been calculated that production totals 81% of CO2e emissions over a 21.6-month lifetime and further estimated that the total emissions of EU’s smartphones can be reduced from 70.2 m tonnes CO2e to 49.9 m tonnes with 33.6month lifetime and all the way to 39.7 m tonnes with 45.6 months lifetime. In addition, reuse via second-hand markets can extend the use phase of products, thereby reducing environmental impacts. Even though these results are reassuring from a sustainability perspective, [23] results suggest that, in practice, for example, repairability itself has limited impact on the actual lifespans of smartphones and on a market-based reuse. Rather, according to the study, it seems that it is mainly the brand that can extend smartphones’ life span by 12.5 months. In some cases, consumers may be more careless if they know that a new, upgraded product is available [24]. Thus, despite growing visibility and interest in circularity and sustainability-related approached in the context of electronics (and smartphones in particular), it remains unclear whether consumers value these issues and to what extent the technical capabilities really extend the use phase in smartphones, as opposed to consumption patterns [23].

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Policies for Lifetime Extension

Policies have a key role in both enabling and forcing a transition towards more circular design, sustainable manufacturing, extended lifetime and efficient recycling. To create incentives to extend lifetime of smartphones, it is important that the same rules apply to all manufacturers, brand owners, retailers and users. In the following policy, framework in the EU as a basis for Finnish national policies are described. At EU level, there are several policies aiming for lifetime extension of smartphones. The European Commission has been promoting Ecodesign over the last decades and ICT hardware is subject to in chronological order first WEEE Directive (2002/96/EC) and secondly Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) that covers all energy-related products. The Ecodesign directive is a framework directive; thus, it does not entail technical requirements. It provides consistent EU-wide rules for improving the environmental performance of products and incorporating environmental and life cycle considerations to the design of the product, without compromising the usability. Furthermore, this directive aims to reduce the companies’ and end users’ costs and improve security of energy supply. Ecodesign is one of the main themes of sustainable product policy for which the European Commission is proposing legislative initiatives in its action plan. Through Ecodesign, the European Commission aims to promote, for example, products’ durability, reusability, maintainability, repairability, improve their resource efficiency and to reduce the environmental footprints. The Ecodesign Directive is implemented through product-specific regulations, directly applicable in all EU countries. For smartphones, there exists a productspecific preparatory study in order to assess the feasibility of proposing Ecodesign and/or Energy Labelling requirements for these product groups [25], including design options and assessment of their impact.

20.5

Interviews About the Challenges Behind the Lifetime Extension

The interviews focused on studying what the general challenges behind lifetime extension are, as far as the interviewed company representatives have observed them. In addition, the study also investigated, whether lifetime length or other circular economy approaches are considered during purchasing process. In general, according to the interviewees, the first life of a smartphone was estimated to be around 2–3 years, which is roughly in line with [7]. A second life was considered to be additional 1–2 years, if the device got one, which at current is not the standard option. The challenges hindering a further extension of the device lifetime related mainly to consumption habits, device design and policies. The factors determining the choice of the smartphone were primarily linked to price, performance and brand; it was the general view that sustainability or

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circularity issues were not relevant factors as a decision-making basis. With regard to the private consumption habits, the lack of awareness and poor care, as well as peer pressure, are associated with increasing demand and shorter life cycles. For example, insufficient knowledge about the possibility to repair a broken or malfunctioning device is a common reason for replacing the device prematurely. In fact, smartphones could often be repaired, even though the user may not consider it as an option, but often the repair costs may exceed the price of a new device, or, for less common devices, there may not be suitable spare parts available. In case of more inexpensive models, it was seen that there exists a lack of motivation to take proper care of the device and take advantage of required protective accessories. Additionally, the consumers may not be aware of the length of a warranty. Furthermore, as smartphones are rapidly evolving, with new features, designs and brands being introduced at a steady pace, the desire to have a new phone, with new features, may influence the consumer’s eagerness to buy a new phone, even though the old may still be fully functional. Nevertheless, since the visual appearances of smartphones are no longer changed as much with each new model, the aesthetics were not seen to provoke the need for new devices as much as before. In case of organizational customers, there often exist internal policies for device use and replacements, which seem to still often prioritize replacement, instead of repair. Depending on the organizations, policies may be changed, but the level of data security may hinder the introduction of more profound repair actions or reuse approaches. According to the interview results, there were also issues related to the product design, which was seen as an obstacle to lifetime extension. The product design decisions not only define the aesthetics, but also durability, longevity, repairability and how well a product preserves its value. The design of the smartphones was not seen to support repairs or modularity. Several of the components are not exchangeable, the work can only be carried out with specific tools and spare part provision is not a default function. In addition to the hardware problems, a repeatedly mentioned design issue concerned the operating system software support, due to the manufacturers’ discontinuation of software support after a certain period. Software has become an essential part of the product and an issue impacting the choice of the product. Once it is no longer supported, the device often reaches the end of its life due to reduced performance, limited functionality and potential vulnerability to online threats, even though the physical device would still be functional. The lack of software support was seen also as a regulatory issue, since there is no proper policy in place banning unsustainable practices. In addition to the challenges, the interviews also collected ideas for facilitating the life cycle extension from various perspectives. In general, all respondents agreed that awareness-raising is important. The awareness related to what the benefits of changing consumer habits could be: general transparency about the sustainability impacts of the products, and shared responsibility between the different actors, all of which will be crucial for extending the lifetime of the smartphones. The consumers need also very practical information about the repairability, warranties, proper care, refurbishments, collection drop-points and it should not only be up to the consumers

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to search for this information, but rather it should be provided to them by default. One means of providing this information may also be through the frontline sales, which may require a more structured approach to training. Also, in sales situations it may be considered, that the devices are sold for a longer period of time, considering also future requirements, for example, in terms of RAM use, software updatability and future-proof connectivity, instead of responding only current needs. In addition, on a higher level, some respondents mentioned the urge to get robust policies in place, to support full life cycle considerations, right to repair and manufacturers responsibility to offer spare parts and software support for the devices.

20.6

Summary

This study focused on the current challenges in the lifetime extension of smartphones and potential solutions through understanding the impacts of design, business strategies and policies in Finland. The factors influencing the lifetime extension were identified through a literature and sector specific interviews. As a summary, turning the focus on design phase of the ICT sector devices is relevant, while the 80% of the lifecycle impacts are determined in the design phase, and supported with proper use and maintenance through the lifecycle. Furthermore, the interviews revealed that decision to use the phone are taken based on price, performance and brand, and both sustainability and circularity issues need to fit the accepted price and performance level. This concern also lifetime extension strategies, even if repair is possible, but considered too expensive, the motivation for repair decreases. Interviews also revealed that the design of the smartphones was not seen to support repairs or modularity. Starting from design hot spots, first priorities could be re-thinking the current materials and components that are not durable or repairable enough, including implementation of modular design principles both to support lifetime extension strategies and recycling. Through design, it is also possible to influence the recycled material content in the new smartphones and to support recycling and the recycled material demand in the market. Interview further revealed current bottlenecks for lifetime extension such as lack of awareness of repair possibilities and warranty. Sometimes repair costs are too high, and there is lack of spare parts. Furthermore, lack of software updates was mentioned as one of the bottleneck for lifetime extension, and insufficient legislation or no proper policy in place banning unsustainable practices example the lack of software support. Sometimes user will be bored of old design, but with organizational customer there was in some cases automatic replacement policy, instead of repair of smartphones. The study based on interviews and their results were considered timely, and the most suggestions to extend smartphone lifetime is expressed based on to overcome the general challenges behind lifetime extension are, as far as frontline sales have observed them. The challenges hindering a further extension of the device lifetime

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related mainly to consumption habits, device design and policies. The design of the smartphones was not seen to support repairs or modularity in interviews. These customer views should be heard carefully in design and evolved towards the design requirements and need for design for durability and repair strategies. Design for attachment and trust for extend lifetime of the smartphones seems to be highly important. Lifetime extension of smartphones has many dimensions; for successful design, awareness-raising through the value chain is essential. Policy development, for example. Right-to-repair, is expected to form a regulatory guidance to support a long-lasting product design. Furthermore, the digital technologies can enable the product lifetime extension opportunities. For example, the development and evolvement of the digital passports to follow physical products through their lifecycle is an arising research and development topic. This encompasses the exploration of business models how digital product passports create value for example by supporting repair, reuse and recycling. Though the focus of the paper considered physical lifetime extension strategies, the interviews revealed user perspectives related to usability, status, image, functionality, and the importance of the software support and updates. It is important to note that software and apps are an essential part of the product and its functionality. These findings support the product design strategies (design for attachment and trust, design for durability, design for standardization and compatibility, design for ease of maintenance and repair, design for adaptability and upgradability and design for disand reassembly) for circular business models proposed by Bakker et al. [18] to take into consideration and guide comprehensive the lifetime extension design. Especially the role of detachment and trust is not as measurable from engineering perspective as other lifetime extension design strategies such as durability, compatibility, repair, upgradability or disassembly. By understanding, development and implementation of the lifetime extension product design strategies and their combinations, the product design can support circular business models and their development such as product-as-a-service or performance-as-a-service. The findings also revealed the circularity gap related to lifetime extension challenge of the smartphones may be solved considerably during product design, and with proper material selections. However, firstly material durability, ability to repair and recycling need to be solved during material design. Acknowledgements The research has been supported by Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra during the research project ‘Digitalization and natural resources’ and the Academy of Finland during the partnership funding ‘Circular Design Network’, funding decision #337713.

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Chapter 21

Dielectric Elastomer Transducer (High-Efficiency Actuator and Power Generation System) S. Chiba, M. Waki, Y. Hirota, N. Nishikawa, T. Yajima, and K. Ohayama

21.1

Introduction

The movement toward achieving virtually zero CO2 emissions by 2050 is progressing rapidly [1–3]. Therefore, in addition to improving the efficient operation of power plants and power grids, we should urgently introduce a power generation system suitable for places that used to only consume power, such as homes, offices, and factories, to also generate large-scale power generation. It is important to quickly build a decentralized energy supply system (smart grid) that does not rely solely on one location. Actuators and sensors using dielectric elastomer (DE) transducers have received a great deal of attention recently due to their light weight, low cost, and high efficiency. In addition, this transducer does not emit carbon dioxide, does not use rare earths, and can generate electricity simply by the transducer being deformed by an external force [4]. In recent years, much research has been conducted on how to utilize DE transducers in order to build a sustainable social infrastructure in an energy recycling society [5]. There is an urgent need to take advantage of the following dielectric S. Chiba (✉) Chiba Science Institute, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] M. Waki Wits Inc., Oshiage, Sakura, Tochigi, Japan Y. Hirota · N. Nishikawa Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kanagawa, Japan T. Yajima Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Tokyo, Japan K. Ohayama Fukuoka, Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_21

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elastomers, which are superior to conventional techniques, as one of the effective means of achieving virtually zero CO2 emission: One of the advantages of using this transducer is that it is possible to realize highefficiency power generation from various renewable energies. In other words, by actively introducing a DE power generation system tailored to the region, such as solar heat, exhaust heat, wind power, hydraulic power, wave power, and vibration, a large amount of CO2 generated from conventional power plants can be significantly reduced. This ability enables it to contribute to the improvement in the global environment [4, 5]. In this chapter, we discuss wind power generation (including smart buildings), ocean current power generation, and solar thermal power generation systems that apply the latest DE technology in comparison with conventional technology. Another method of green power generation using DEs is the active use of DE actuators. A DE is an excellent energy-saving actuator. At present, it is possible to lift a weight of 8 kg with 0.15 g of dielectric elastomer with 88 ms by 1 mm or more [6]. This actuator can be used not only as a linear drive but also as a DE rotating body in the same way as a normal motor. This capability could be used for an automobile drive motor that is ultra-lightweight and has a large output. This chapter also discusses the latest advances in DE transducers.

21.2

Dielectric Elastomer (DE) Background

DEs are the world’s first artificial muscle actuator technology invented by R. Perline and S. Chiba of SRI International (Stanford Research Institute, CA, USA) in 1990 [7]. The structure of this actuator is simple, with a soft polymer (elastomer) sandwiched between flexible electrodes [4–8]. When a voltage is applied to this actuator, the elastomer stretches and can move in the horizontal direction (see Fig. 21.1). For artificial muscle type actuators driven by electricity (Electro Active Polymers: EAP), there are dielectric elastomers [1, 2], ionic polymer-metal composites [9], electroconductive polymers [10], ion polymer gels [11], polymer structure changes (using liquid crystal, etc.) [12], carbon nanoparticle composites [13], etc. Ionic polymer-metal (or carbon nanoparticle) composites, electroconductive polymers, and ion polymer gels [11] use owe their capabilities to the movement of ions and water molecules in the polymer film (electrode forms). They are called wet (ion) type. DE is called a dry type because it does not use an electrolytic solution. Many researchers have researched and developed DEs, and their research contents are roughly divided into “DE materials (including electrode materials) [14–29] with mechanical systems that apply them” and “electricity that drives DEs”. Development of circuits, etc.” [19, 30–32]. The parameters that improve the performance of DEs are the withstand voltage, dielectric constant, Young’s modulus, etc. of the elastomer and the conductive performance of the electrode. Increasing the elastomer parameter increases the

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ON

OFF

V

V

+ + + - - Fig. 21.1 Driving principle of DE actuator

hardness of the film and does not significantly deform DE. That is, the power obtained does not increase unless it is greatly deformed (thickness). As for the electrode material, the single-wall carbon nanotube (ZEONANO®-SG101), which has excellent conductivity and can be produced flexibly, is the most suitable [33]. Regarding the life of DE, it was also found that tens of millions of times are sufficiently possible if the above parameters are selected properly [28, 29, 34, 35]. Power generation is also possible by reversing the drive of this DE actuator. This principle is detailed below: The DE power generation element has the same “simple structure of a dielectric sandwiched between two flexible electrodes” as an actuator, and it is considered to be a kind of variable capacitance capacitor whose capacitance changes with mechanical energy (see Fig. 21.2) [15]. That is, when some mechanical energy is applied to the DE film to stretch it, the film thickness becomes thin and the area expands. At this time, electrostatic energy is generated on the polymer and stored as an electric charge. After that, when the mechanical energy is reduced, the film thickness increases due to the elastic force of the DE film itself, and the film area decreases. At this time, the electric charge is pushed out toward the electrode. Such a change in charge increases the voltage difference, resulting in an increase in electrostatic energy. The capacitance C of the DE film can be described using the following mathematical formula [15]. C = ε0 εA=t = ε0 εb=t 2

ð21:1Þ

where ε0 is the permittivity of free space, ε is the dielectric constant of the dielectric elastomer membrane, A is the movable region of the polymer membrane, t is the thickness, and b is the volume of the membrane. In Eq. (21.1), the volume of the elastomer is essentially invariant, so A/t = b = constant. The power generation

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Fig. 21.2 DE power generation principle. (a) Stretched DE. (b) DE returns to its original shape

Electrodes with flexibility in black Yellow is DE

+ + – –

+ + – –

+ –

+ –

(a)

++++++ – – ––– –

(b)

energy E of the DE per cycle of expansion and contraction is related to the change in the capacitance of DE. E = 0:5C1Vb2 ðC1=C2–1Þ

ð21:2Þ

C1 and C2 are the capacitances of DE in the stretched and contracted states, respectively, and V b is the bias voltage. The power generation theory proposed by Chiba [15] was proved by him in a power generation experiment in a two-dimensional aquarium [36]. Considering the change in voltage here, it can be said that the charge Q of the DE is constant in a basic circuit for a short period of time. That is, since V = Q/C, the voltage V2 in the contracted state can be expressed as follows, assuming that the voltage V1 in the expanded state [15, 36]. V2 = Q=C2 = ðC1=C2ÞðQ=C1Þ = ðC1=C2ÞV1

ð21:3Þ

Since C2 < C1, based on the energy theory described above, the voltage in the contracted state is higher than the voltage in the expanded state, and that amount is the amount of power generation. As mentioned above, the principle of operation in generator mode is the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy by the transformation of DE. Functionally, this mode is similar to piezoelectricity, but its power generation mechanism is fundamentally different. DE can be used to generate power even with slow changes in the shape of DE [15]. Piezoelectric devices, on the other hand, require shocking mechanical forces to generate power. Also, the amount of electrical

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energy produced and the efficiency of conversion from mechanical energy to electrical energy can be greater than that from piezoelectricity [15, 37, 38].

21.3

Development of the Power Generation System Using DES

So far, various systems making use of DEs have been studied [15, 18–26, 30, 36, 39– 58]. For example, a wave power generation system with a DE built into a buoy has recently become well known. The advantage of this power generation method is that it can handle various wave frequencies and their magnitudes and does not depend on the direction of the waves. In addition, Moretti and Vertechy [21, 23] studied how to convert wave power into air pressure to deform DEs and Yurchenko and others [41, 42] vibrated a ball containing DEs to generate electricity. In addition, Pei et al. tried wind power generation using DEs [24, 40]. As mentioned above, DEs are a very good power generation system, but they have not been successfully made into a very large power generation element yet. Therefore, in order to make a large-scale power generation system, it is necessary to arrange or stack a large number of power generation elements, or to adopt both of them. On the other hand, solar power, wind power, waves, marine current power generation systems, etc. using the conventional technology could be increased in physical size, but their power generation efficiency and power generation cost are very high. There are also restrictions on the size and direction of the waves that can be used. The same applies to ocean current power generation and wind power generation. In this chapter, we would like to discuss the hybridization of existing technology systems and DE power generation. That is, the existing systems that could be scaled up and the energy they fail to harvest would be backed up by DE power generation, and the power generation efficiency of the existing system would improve.

21.3.1

DE Power Generation Using Solar Heat

The history of power generation using sunlight is old, and many studies have been conducted from the past, including research using ultra violet and ultra red, but there has been little progress. Generally, it is assumed that the desert is a good location for solar energy because the temperature is high, but in fact, if the temperature is too high, the efficiency will decrease. The biggest flaw is that solar panels cannot be stacked, so the amount of power generated per area cannot be increased. Therefore, DE power generation. Using solar heat has been proposed [56]. Figure 21.3 shows an outline of the trial set of the power generation system using solar heat.

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Solar Fresnel lens

Sunlight

Heated portion Piston Air

Amount of solar radiation input: Water-cooling 39W portion Piston

Crankshaft

Stroke: 5mm

DE diaphragm-type electric Generator having the size of 8cm in diameter Fig. 21.3 Principle of trial set of the power generation system using solar heat

A conventional system using solar heat is a system that collects sunlight, creates steam with the heat, and turns a turbine, all of which requires a fairly large and complicated system. The system developed this time collects heat with a 1000 mm × 1350 mm Fresnel lens and heats a tube with a thickness of 3 mm and a volume of 44 cm3. The air in the tube, heated by the sun, expands and but pushes the piston in tube, and the force deforms the DE to generate electricity. The diameter of the piston in the tube is 25 mm and its stroke is 24 mm. As a power generation element, 30 diaphragm DEs with a diameter of 8 cm were prepared and put into a cylinder of about 10 cm to make a cartridge. If this cartridge is deformed by 5 mm, about 1.4 J can be obtained. The movement of the piston was 12.2 Hz, and a maximum of 2.7 W was obtained. This thermal efficiency was about 3.5% because heat escaped from around the piston. However, the piston system here has enough power and it is possible to install another 7DE cartridges. If installed, the maximum would be 16.2 W and the efficiency would be 21%, which is equivalent to solar power generation. In order to further improve the efficiency, we devised a way to not let the heat around the piston escape. If a substance with a low boiling point such as Bentan or ammonia is used instead of air, it will boil at 40 °C or less, so the thermal efficiency could be dramatically increased. In addition, while the experiment detailed in this study used an electrode using ordinary carbon, if an electrode made of single-wall carbon nanotube (ZEONANO®-SG101) was used, the efficiency could further be dramatically improved. A power-generation experiment was conducted using a drape type DE having a height of 120 mm and a diameter of 260 mm [33]. The DE was pulled about 60 mm, and the amount of power generated was measured. The weight of the drape was 4.6 g, and an acrylic material was used. Carbon black, MWCNTs, and SWCNTs were used as electrode materials, respectively. The amount of power generation using carbon black was 284 mJ. By changing the electrode to MWCNTs or

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SWCNTs, more power can be obtained. This is because MWCNTs and SWCNTs have higher conductivity than carbon black. In the power-generation experiment using the SWCNT electrode, a power generation amount about 2.3 times that of the electrode having carbon black was obtained. This DE solar thermal power generation system is considered to be one of the key technologies for combatting global warming because of its simple structure, possibility of high-power generation efficiency, relatively compact size, and ability to be scaled up easily: A feature of this technology is that it uses solar heat, so if methods are devised to prevent heat from escaping, stacking is easily possible. Now, the merit of hybridizing DEs with existing solar power generation is that in solar power generation, the power generation efficiency drops when the temperature rises, and the power generation efficiency drops when clouds appear. DE solar heat capture and power generation can occur in both cases. With these merits, if a power generation system that covers the shortcomings of solar panels alone is introduced, it is thought that the existing system will function efficiently as sustainable energy. To summarize the points that make solar thermal power generation more efficient when using DEs, infrared rays are also captured as solar heat in this process, and therefore, even during cloudy weather, infrared rays reach the generator. It is possible to stack multiple stages, increasing the efficiency per area. In addition, by using a substance with a low boiling point (e.g., Bentan), it becomes possible to boil at a considerably low temperature (30–40 °C), and power can be generated fairly efficiently.

21.3.2

DE Power Generation Using Fluid

In order to investigate the performance and feasibility of a small hydropower system using DEs, a proof of principle model of the power generation system was tested in a running water tank [57]. A schematic diagram of this experiment is shown in Fig. 21.4. The mass of the DE material in the generator module is only 0.1 g, but the electrical energy generated by the 10 mm stroke is 12.54 mJ. By scaling up this system to a system that can carry 100 DE transducers (total DE weight 10 g), about 1.5 J of electrical energy can be obtained per cycle from the DE generator. The speed of water in the experiment was set to 0.30 to 0.70 m/s. This is a small stream that is Fig. 21.4 Schematic diagram of the DE power generation system using water flow

Hydro foil

Water flow

Pin DE

Cylinder Karman vortex

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almost the same as the water in a Japanese garden. The system was driven by Karman vortices in the wake of a cylinder fixed to the water stream. Behind the cylinder, wings were installed as a power generation system (the part that applies external force to the DE) that converts fluid energy into mechanical energy. The pressure from the Karman vortex causes the wings to vibrate, causing the DE transducer to expand and contract, generating electricity. Experimental results show that with a cylinder diameter of 60 mm and a wingspan and chord length of 120 mm and 30 mm, respectively, an average output is about 31 mW, which is about 67% of the maximum output of the DE generator used, indicating high efficiency. The distance between the cylinder and the wing was 170 mm, and the velocity of the water flow was 0.50 m/s. Fluid power generation (especially marine current power generation) always flows constantly regardless of the weather, so it is ideal for power generation and sustainable energy. However, there are also major problems. That is, if the flow is slow, it is necessary to increase the size of the power generation system by that amount, and although the construction cost is enormous, the power generation efficiency is poor. Therefore, by combining it with DEs, which have low construction cost, less influence from seaweed, and high-power generation efficiency, more efficient power generation becomes possible.

21.3.3

DE Power Generation Using Wind Power

In the current wind power generation, since the wind power is replaced with the rotary motion to generate power, it is limited in terms of safety and installation space, and there is also a problem of low frequency noise. In addition, unless a certain amount of wind (about 8 m/s) is blown, power generation will not be efficient, and maintenance costs such as repair for rotor damage from typhoons could be extreme [58]. Figure 21.5 shows the wind speed and the amount of power generated in the existing wind power generation.

Fig. 21.5 Wind speed and amount of power generated by existing wind power generation

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Fig. 21.6 Photograph of the skeleton used in the experiment

In addition to the above, if a wind power generation system is installed on the roof of a building, the wind is stronger there than the ground surface, making it a suitable for the installation location. It is a very unfortunate that this fact has not been more advantageously exploited. With DE wind power generation, there is no need to convert wind power into rotary motion. This means power can be generated directly, with a simple device, there is no low frequency problem, and even a small size generator can generate power efficiently. For example, it is possible to realize a system in which the DE itself is fluttered by the wind to generate electricity by using Karma vortices as well as fluids by using windsocks or carp streamers. Also, from the viewpoint of aesthetics, the electrodes and elastomers can be made transparent, which is also quite advantageous. The performance evaluation of the Ellon-controlled DE system of the Mars exploration plane was conducted using the continuous circulation low-speed wind tunnel (measurement section of 2 m × 2 m) of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) [16]. The performance evaluation of the Ellon-controlled DE system of the Mars exploration plane was conducted using the continuous circulation low-speed wind tunnel (2 m × 2 m measurement section) of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). At that time, the turbulence caused the wings to sway from side to side. Figure 21.6 shows a photograph of this experimental skeleton (including wings). Here, as in the case of the above-mentioned fluid power generation, a cylinder was placed in front of the wing, and how the wing shook was simulated using the Earth Simulator (supercomputer) of JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology). The conditions for two-dimensional unsteady calculation are shown below: . . . . .

Turbulence model: LES Smangorinsky, 440,000 elements (minimum 2 mm). Simulation time: 10 s, decomposition degree: 1 ms. Distance between the skeleton (wing) and the precursor (cylinder): 50–400 mm. Wind speed: 5, 10, 20, 25 m/s. Room temperature/normal humidity.

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Fig. 21.7 Arrangement conditions for wings and cylinders

Wind speed: 5-25 m/s

Cylinder: φ100 or 150 mm Distance: 50-400 mm Fixed aileron

Fig. 21.8 Image graphic showing the simulation results of Karman vortices generated in the precursor (Cylinder φ 150 mm, wind speed 5 m/s, distance to cylinder 50 mm)

The arrangement conditions for the wings and cylinders are shown below (see Fig. 21.7): Figure 21.8 shows an imaged graphic showing the simulation results of the Karman vortex generated on the wing body. From the result of this calculation, the aileron of the wing can be driven even at a wind speed of 5 m/s, and the movement is enough to generate electricity. By the way, by incorporating a device that creates a Karma vortex inside a windsock or carp streamer, it is calculated that with a wind speed of 5 m/s, a 3 Hz drive, and a DE of about 400 g, and an electric power of about 6550 W can be obtained. As shown in Fig. 21.5, the existing wind power generation does not generate enough power until it reaches about 8 m/s. Therefore, by installing a DE wind power generator to generate electricity under conditions of lower wind power, using that power to rotate the rotor of a conventional generator so that even low wind power could be generated, the power generation efficiency of the existing system will be significantly improved.

21.3.4

Energy Saving Drive Using a DE Actuator

As mentioned above, it is now possible to lift a weight of 8 kg with a dielectric elastomer of 0.15 g with 88 ms by 1 mm or more [6]. This DE actuator can be used with acrylic VHB4910 and electrode material SWCNTs (ZEONANO®-SG101) in the same way as a normal motor. In this sense, it has become possible to realize an automobile drive motor that is ultra-lightweight and has a large output [6]. What is often discussed here is that although it is powerful, it is criticized for its small stroke.

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The force-stroke relationship is inversely proportional. The smaller the force, the larger the stroke. Also, since the DEA is a sheet shape, it can be laminated. Since the weight of the DEA alone is very light, even if a considerable number of layers could conceivably be laminated. Therefore, when driving a car, it seems that the best method is to place a DEA on each tire and drive it directly. A comparison of the efficiencies of this DE device with existing motors is detailed below [6]: Assuming that the existing DC brushed motor (RE-280RA manufactured by Mabuchi Motor) has a linear motion structure of 50 g, the power per 1 g is 0.0015 W. Next, the power of the DE motor is calculated. Calculating the power of the DEA based on the power P (W) = Nm/s, a DEA that can lift 4 kg displaces 1 mm at a speed of 98 ms, so the power P (W) = 39.2 × 0.001/0.098 = 0.4 (W) The power will be 0.4 W. The weight of the frame that reinforces the DEA also needs to be considered. The weight of the frame and other structures used for the DEA is 31.2 g, and the DEA is 0.98 g, so the total weight is 32.18 g and the power per gram is 0.0124 W. Compared to linear actuators that use conventional motors, the DE linear actuators have achieved a power of 8.3 times greater. Recalculating based on the results of this experiment, a DEA that lifts 8 kg displaces 1 mm at a velocity of 88 ms, resulting in an output P (W) = 78.4 × 0.001/0.088 = 0.89 (W). The weight of the frame and other structures used in the DEA is 31.2 g, and the DEA is 0.94 g, so the total weight is 32.14 g and the power per gram is 0.0277 W. From this, the DE linear actuator can obtain 18.5 times the output of the linear actuator using the conventional motor. If such energy saving progresses, it will greatly contribute to the stabilization of smart grids in the area. As a possible great start, various car parts (about 120 motors are used in ordinary cars) could be replaced with DEs.

21.4

Summary and Recommendations

Solar power generation, wave power generation, fluid power generation (marine current power generation), wind power generation, etc. are now given a spot light in the utilization of renewable energy. However, the power generation efficiency suffers from being easily affected by the weather, the direction of the wind, the direction of the waves and the flow. The high construction and the maintenance cost add additional downsides. From the above experimental results and paper search results, it is thought that (1) efficiency will be improved by hybridizing with DE power generation. In addition, in (2), in order to make the regional smart grid more stable, we recommend to use a DE motor for energy-saving driving. These two reliably achieve points are practical shortcuts to achieve virtually zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

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Acknowledgments We would like to thank ZEON Corporation for providing SWCNTs (ZEONANO®-SG101) free of charge for carrying out the experiment.

References 1. White Paper on Renewable Energy (2016) Institute for Sustainable energy Policies. https:// www.isep.or.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/JSR2016 2. The 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations framework convention on climate change (COP23), November 6th to 17th, Bonn, Germany, 2017 3. Carbon dioxide emissions virtually zero in 2050. Ministry of the Environment, Japan, 2020 4. Chiba S et al (2019) Recent progress on soft transducers for sensor networks. In: Hu AH et al (eds) Technologies and eco-innovation toward sustainability II. Springer Nature, Berlin. https:// doi.org/10.1007/981-13-1196-3_23 5. Chiba S et al (2021) Green power generations and environmental monitoring based on the dielectric elastomer transducer. In: Kishitani Y et al (eds) Sustainable production, service, life cycle engineering and management, eco design and sustainability I. Springer Nature, Berlin. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6779-7 6. Chiba S et al (2021) Challenge of creating high performance dielectric elastomers. In: Proceedings of SPIE 2021 (Smart Structures and Materials Symposium and its 23rd Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) Conference), pp 1157–1162. https://doi.org/10. 1117/12.2581255 7. Pelrine R, Chiba S (1992) Review of artificial muscle approaches. In: Proceedings of Third International Symposium on micromachine and human science, Nagoya, Japan, pp 1–9 8. Pelrine R, Kornbluh R, Chiba S et al (1999) High-field deformation of elastomeric dielectrics for actuators. In: Proceedings of the 6th SPIE symposium on smart structure and materials, vol 3669, pp 149–161 9. Oguro K, Fujiwara N, Asaka K, Onishi K, Sewa S (1999) Polymer electrolyte actuator with gold electrodes. In: Proceedings of the SPIE’s 6th Annual International symposium on smart structures and materials. SPIE proceedings, vol 3669, pp 64–71 10. Otero TF, Sansiñena JM (1998) Soft and wet conducting polymers for artificial muscles. Adv Mater 10(6):491–494 11. Osada Y, Okuzaki H, Hori H (1992) A polymer gel with electrically driven motility. Nature 355:242–244 12. Kai S (2010) In: Osada Y (ed) Physical characteristics and applications of electric field-driven liquid crystal elastomer actuators, actuators that move the future. CMC Press, pp 135–145 13. Ishibashi M (2010) In: Osada Y (ed) Carbon nano particle (CNP) composite actuator, actuators that move the future. CMC Press, pp 72–82 14. Chiba S, Stanford S, Pelrine R, Kornbluh R, Prahlad H (2006) Electroactive polymer artificial muscle. JRSJ 24(4):38–42 15. Chiba S, Waki M, Kormbluh R, Pelrine R (2008) Innovative power generators for energy harvesting using electroactive polymer artificial muscles. In: Bar-Cohen Y (ed) Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD). Proceedings SPIE, vol 6927, p 692715 16. Chiba S, Waki M The challenge of controlling a small mars plane. https://doi.org/10.5772/ intechopen.95507 17. Koh SJA, Zhao X, Suo Z (2009) Maximal energy that can be converted by a dielectric elastomer generator. Appl Phys Lett 94(26):262902–262903 18. Huang J, Shian S, Suo Z, Clarke D (2013) Maximizing the energy density of dielectric elastomer generators using equi-biaxial loading. Adv Funct Mater 23:5056–5061 19. Lin G, Chen M, Song D (2009) Proceedings of the International Conference on energy and environment technology (ICEET 09), pp 782–786

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Chapter 22

Sustainable Services in Convenience Stores: A Case Study on Food Loss Label Edilson Ueda

22.1

Introduction

This research explores and identifies the possibilities of sustainable services in convenience stores to reduce food loss from an industrial design perspective. This study focuses on food loss at Japanese convenience stores such as Seven-Eleven and Lawson. According to the previous literature [1–6], in 2015, the number of convenience stores operating in Japan was over 55,700. In 2011, convenience stores and supermarkets annually produced 5–8 million tonnes of food waste, an amount of food that could be consumed but is discarded (Ministry of Agriculture [1]). The issue of food loss has been one of the most critical inputs to the Sustainable Development Goals set by 193 UN members at the United Nations in the 15 years from 2016 to 2030 [5]. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, thermal food loss can be referred to as unsold food, food leftovers, expired food, or food that can be consumed but is unloaded [5, 6]. Figure 22.1 illustrates an example of food loss at convenience stores in Japan, which shows a significant amount of wasted lunchboxes and rice dumplings [7]. In 2019, the Japanese government adopted a guideline to focus on reducing per capita food waste by 2030; one example is ‘Promoting Food Loss Reduction’, which clarifies the responsibilities of national and local governments to promote food waste reduction [6].

E. Ueda (✉) Sustainable Design Laboratory, Design Research Institute (DRI), Chiba University, Chiba, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_22

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Fig. 22.1 Food loss issues from convenience stores [7]

Based on the issues of food loss described above, this research explores sustainable strategies and solutions for the short and long term from the point of view of industrial design.

22.2

General Design Research

Reviewing the literature referring to convenience stores in Japan, the food wastage case has been little explored, and there are also no concrete strategies and solutions to reduce food loss in the short and long term. In this research, food loss refers to food that can still be ingested but is discarded due to the expiration of the sale period and also due to disposal. In search of a possible solution to the loss of food in convenience stores, the following steps were explored: 1. Literature review. At the beginning of this research, data were collected from reports published by convenience stores and also reports published in newspapers regarding food losses at convenience stores. An overview of current services to promote concern about food loss in convenience stores was analysed. Information from this literature was reviewed and compared. 2. Visiting places. The research was carried out through observations during visits to two of the largest convenience store chains in Japan, Seven-Eleven and Lawson. During the visit, information such as the layout of food sales shelves was documented through photographic records. And also, during the visit, informal conversations were held with employees, such as the time for replacement and replacement of new foods. 3. Review customer satisfaction feedback found on blogs and look for comments regarding lost food. Based on these stages of the research, the information was analysed, and from the point of view of industrial design, possible concrete solutions were explored. The proposals were related to the strategy of future food packaging design with a message of the importance of awareness of food waste. And also, the current solution

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involves using visual communication for food packaging labels, along with promoting discounts, before the items are removed from the shelves of convenience stores. Based on the exploration of the number of possible solutions, a proposal with short and medium characteristics was developed, which was called ‘Mottainai Food Label’. This ‘Mottainai Food Label’ proposal was presented to sustainability agencies in Japan and convenience store planners. Important considerations were obtained during interviews with experts, in which details were redrawn to fit the real current needs from the point of view of the convenience store business and the solution of food waste. The details of the content design proposal were evaluated through a questionnaire designed and distributed to the general public. The questionnaire was distributed in important regions of Japan, such as the capital of Tokyo and the city of Chiba (printed form), and also the questionnaire was distributed through the Google Form on our website. A total of 113 respondents answered the questionnaire, in which there was a balanced proportion of gender (male 50.4% and female 49.6%) and age (from teenagers to the age of 80) with 70% of respondents responding through Google Forms.

22.3 22.3.1

Convenience Stores and Food Loss The Convenience Stores in Japan

Based on literature reviews, 24 h of convenience store services in Japan have been considered one of the most critical factors that have changed Japanese users’ lifestyles through their services based on three keywords: anywhere, anytime and anything [8]. ‘Anywhere’ means that there is at least one convenience store in every rail or bus station. In April 2019, there were about 58,000 convenience stores in Japan, representing an increase of about 1.5 times from 20 years ago [9]. Japan has the most significant number of retail stores per capita compared to any other country [10], and the overall number of stores continues to grow. Figure 22.2 illustrates the distribution of various convenience stores in Inage Station, Chiba City, Japan. ‘Anytime’ means that they are open 24 h a day, 365 days a year [11]. Today, convenience stores in Japan will stress their stores’ role as part of the social infrastructure, including the prevention of nighttime crime and supplying goods in the event of disasters. ‘Anything’ means that the wide range of services and small portions of food and products available are appealing to an increasing number of ageing lone-parent households. As a result, it became part of local community life, providing banking services, accepting public and tax service payments, buying online and others [12].

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Fig. 22.2 “Anywhere”: Example of convenience stores in Japan near the train station (Inage Station, Chiba)

22.3.2

Food Loss in Convenience Stores

The main business competition between the different convenience stores has been the innovation of novel menu foods, which offer fresh food at any time of the day [13]. According to the local place, this fact implies the replacement of food every two or more times a day. Moreover, this business competitiveness in providing an attractive food menu to the consumer has led to environmental problems, such as failure to consume all food on the shelves. Foods labelled with expiration information, for example, date, day and time, are removed from shelves and are disposed of hours or minutes before their expiry date. Approximately 6.43 million tons of foods are disposed of annually by convenience stores in Japan, and each store spends 100 thousand yen for recycling 108 kg of food per month. Each convenience store of the company disposes of about 10–15 kg of food per day (about 20,000 to 50,000 yen at the selling price), accounting for 3–5% of the total food loss [5–7]. In 2020, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, the Japanese government identified the loss of food in convenience stores as a severe problem to be solved. This issue is currently under discussion between local store representatives and local governments to find a solution to reduce food losses [14].

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321

Initiative to Reduce Food Loss in Convenience Stores

The major convenience store companies have introduced an initiative to reduce food loss in convenience stores through two categories: (1) corporate efforts through technological development and management strategies and (2) food waste reduction policies for consumers. The first refers to developing a ‘Package Design’ that extends the expiration date through frozen food sales. The second refers to the label discount campaign of food close to its expiration date and accumulated points card. This label discount proposes to encourage and incentivize users-consumers to be concerned and purchase the food that will be discarded. These two initiatives have been implemented in the representative convenience stores in Japan: Seven-Eleven and Lawson. For example, in May 2020, Seven-Eleven implemented the ‘Ethical Project’ strategy that includes a discount and point card called ‘Nanaco’. Figure 22.3 shows details of the campaign label. Through the ‘Nanaco’ card points, users-consumers can purchase food with labelled stickers, with a discount of 5%. Moreover, the points are accumulated on the card. Each point is equivalent to 100 yen [15, 16]. Although the company has reduced wasted food, the implemented strategies are still in their initial phase. Our interview with experts involved in strategy revealed that the company has not achieved its 100% reduction of food loss. The potential reason for the consumer's lack of perception of the campaign label may be attributed to the abundance of information present on the food packaging. Toward this issue, the question is how to attract consumers to become aware of foods through ethical and discount labels. In our questionnaire, we noted another critical factor observed during the acquisition of the ‘Nanaco’ card: filling out a sheet form, which requires personal data, home address and email and telephone number. Filling out the form required a certain amount of time. In addition, it was filled out outside the convenience store, as there is no place and space in the stores to fill it out, and the number of users (employees and consumers) inside the store does not allow this activity.

Fig. 22.3 “Ethical Project” label (discount of food) [15, 16]

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In June–September 2019, Lawson implemented the strategy titled ‘Support Needy Children’ campaign, in which 5% (food labelled with a discount 5%) was donated to support needy children [17]. This strategy also included a discount and point card called the ‘Ponta Card’. However, the service finished in 3 months with limited success. According to the interview with experts involved with the strategy, there is exactly no main factor for having ended the strategy; one possibility could be the label’s design, which may not hold the attention of the users-consumers.

22.3.4

User Attitudes Toward an Initiative to Reduce Food Loss in Convenience Stores

In order to propose a realistic and concrete way to contribute to the food loss reduction in convenience stores, we based on the questionnaire results answered by 113 respondents. According to the results, 95.5% of respondents answered that they would like to reduce food loss issues. However, concerning the food discount label campaign, 19.3% of respondents did not note the discount food label. Other 80.7% of respondents argue that there is much visual information on the shelves of convenience stores. However, the available time to choose the food does not allow to check every detail of the food’s packaging. Another factor was 98.3% of respondents answered that the application to get the card discount is troublesome because it is needed to fill the form with much personal information, which takes an amount of time. These respondents expressed that 88.4% do not like to give their personal information, such as their name, birthdate, address and phone number. 99.7% of respondents indicated that they would be inclined to apply for the Point Card by utilizing simpler methods, such as providing a nickname.

22.4

Designing a Sustainable Services to Reduce Food Loss

Based on the information from previous sections, we focus the research on two poles: the business viewpoints of convenience stores and primary users’ attitudes and preferences. To find a possible sustainable service solution, a balance between these two poles, we focus on two major Japanese convenience stores: Seven-Eleven and Lawson. Therefore, we have chosen these two companies as a case study. In order to propose a concrete and practical service, we review their current situations through observation during visits to Seven-Eleven and Lawson: their package food design, their sales discount labels, the time for sealing the discount

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Fig. 22.4 Labelling the food before the expired date in order to reduce food loss (discount of food)

food, the display of discount food on the shelves and also details such as the lighting on the shelves. Figure 22.4 shows the employee labelling the food before its expiration time. Initially, staff spend a certain quantity of time checking the expired food date limit list, and they certify the food displayed on the shelves.

22.4.1

Mottainai Food Label (MFL) and Mottainai Food Application for Convenience Stores (MFA-CV)L

In order to promote reducing food waste from convenience stores, we proposed a design label with available technology called radio-frequency identification (RFID). According to the experts, the RFID and its implementation in Japanese companies have shown its viability and benefits [18]. In 2020, the RFID cost was not more than 5 yen, but Japanese companies aim to target 1 yen per label in 2025 (estimated 100 billion label sheets in 2025) [18]. One of the primary functions of RFID is to reduce the number of staff for the payment of products through the self-payment made by the consumer. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Lawson and Family Mart, the cashless payment at convenience stores will expand. Users can pay anywhere in the store through the RFID label, eliminating waiting at the cash register. Five major convenience stores in Japan, namely, Seven-Eleven, Family Mart, Lawson and Ministop, will adopt the RFID label by the year 2025 [19]. Lawson has already conducted a demonstration experiment of automatic payment using RFID labels. In 2020, in collaboration with telecommunications company

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Fig. 22.5 Mottaini Food Label Design Mark

Fig. 22.6 Basic menu of Mottainai food loss application and details of reading of RFID label

KDDI, Lawson introduced a service application for mobile phones. The users registered their personal information on the application site and received food discount information before expiration. These foods can get reductions of 20% [20]. Based on the current and medium-term RFID implementation in marketing, we developed a new design label called ‘Mottainai Food Label’ (MFL) and also an application for cellphones called ‘Mottainai Food Application for Convenience Stores’ (MFA-CS). Figure 22.5 shows the details of the MFL proposal that incorporates the RFID. Moreover, Fig. 22.6 shows the MFL application on the food package. The MFL design label characteristics are as follows: (1) Not use of long sentences, (2) focus on a character that expresses users’ satisfaction and contentment in contributing to the reduction of food loss, and (3) details of the 5–50% discount. The RFID embedded in the label with information via short-range wireless communication facilitates the payment of food and provides more details about the food, which are difficult to describe in conventional printer labels.

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325

Feature of the Mottainai Food Loss Services Application

Based on the results of the questionnaires, a large part of respondents (76.3%) expressed interest in reducing food waste in convenience stores through the information by cellphone. Therefore, through the questionnaire’s preference and respondents’ comments, the Mottainai food loss services application was developed. Figure 22.6 shows the basic menu of the Mottainai application for convenience stores (MFA-CV), which includes the following topics: (1) Convenience stores map, (2) free discount notification, (3) scanner reader of the label and (4) points of accumulated and benefits. The sub-menu application facilitates the storage of maps and discount notifications, enabling users to conveniently access label information and feedback of sales information. Inside the store, the users’ cellphones can get the radio-frequency label information; through the cellphone, the application reads the label of food discount information. The label uses a reusable system, which can be implemented in each convenience store to reduce the environmental impact of the number of labels. Figure 22.7 shows details of the reusable way to reuse the label. After purchasing the food, users can return the labels in a container at entrances and convenience

Fig. 22.7 Reusable RFID label (rewrite Information)

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stores. The container with a sterilizer system cleans the label. This system permits users to contribute to reducing the quantity of labels. Furthermore, on reusable labels, new information about food and discount is added.

22.4.2

Mottainai Food Label (MFL) with UV-Colour Change Resources

Based on the results of the questionnaires, a small part of respondents (23.7%) expressed that it was not easy to use a cellphone, especially since it would be not easy to access a particular application with food discounts. To address this problem, we conducted an investigation into an alternative approach for identifying food discount labels. This approach involves the utilization of Ultraviolet (UV) inks that exhibit a reaction to the incidence of ultraviolet light. Figure 22.8 shows an example of a label printed in black color that changes its color to red. This effect makes the label more evident about other information when the food is closing the expiration date on the shelves. The arrangement of the foods permits the LED-UV light to shine on the labels. This method reduces the time to attach the labels and facilitates the recognition by users through the effect of the label colour.

22.4.3

Evaluation of Mottainai Food Label (MFL) and Mottainai Application for Convenience Stores (MFA-CV)

Users-consumers and experts, and organizers involved in sustainable development in Japan, have evaluated the proposed design. According to the survey results, users showed interest in future services through cellphone or other digital media with the following principal contents:

Fig. 22.8 Mottaini Food label printed with UVink

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Fig. 22.9 The scenario of user and recognization of label campaign

1. Ninty-five percent express interest to use the application with the discount service information of food with the approaching deadline before discarding food timelimit. 2. Ninety percent expressed interest in receiving a short message with pictograms showing the remaining time until the food sales deadline. 3. Seventy-seven percent expressed interest to receive information on how much users can contribute to reducing food loss by comparing something or someone. 4. Seventy percent expressed interest in receiving information about the benefits (added points) after purchasing food that is close to the sales deadline. 5. Fifty-five percent expressed interest to receive information of share and cooperate information with other users. 6. Forty-five percent expressed interest to receive information on user activity history purchases and environmental. Figure 22.9 shows an example of the Mottainai food label and Mottainai food application for convenience stores. Here, firstly users can identify the Mottainai campaign through an outdoor poster. Then, users can recognize the new services inside the convenience stores through the proposed label design and food discounts application for cellphones.

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Conclusion

The present impediments to users contributing to the reduction of food loss include a lack of awareness of the food discount campaign through distinctive marketing labels. The difficulty in identifying these labels is compounded by the inconvenient process of registering personal information in order to acquire food discounts. Users expressed interest in this new way through the proposal of the new label with visual improvement and the implementation of new features such as RFID and UV printing. In addition, they expressed that the proposed design (label and application) could encourage them to be more proactive during the consumption of food in convenience stores. Experts evaluated the proposed design with the following criteria: (1) The feasibility of RFID implementation into a new design label, (2) the reuse method of labels contributes to waste reduction and reduces costs for companies and (3) the implementation of UV printing is original but implies adapting new LED on the shelves and certifying the LED lighting rays hitting the tags for shine labels.

References 1. Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan (2021) MOE discloses the estimated amount of Japan’s food loss and waster generated in FY2018. https://www.env.go.jp/en/ headline/2515.html. Accessed Apr 2021 2. Terasaka A (1998) Development of new store types: the role of convenience stores in Japan. GeoJournal 45:317–325 3. Yahagi T, Kar M (2009) The process of international business model transfer in the seveneleven group: US - Japan - China. Asia Pac Bus Rev 15(1):41–58 4. United Nations (2015) Sustainable Development Goals 17. https://www.undp.org. Accessed Jan 2020 5. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2018) Amount of Food Loss in 2018 (in Japanese). https://www.maff.go.jp/j/press/shokusan/kankyoi/210427.html. Accessed Feb 2020 6. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2019) Creating a sustainable future–What can we do to reduce Food Loss and Waste? World Food Day Symposium 2019. https://www.mofa.go.jp/ press/release/press4e_002643.html. Accessed Feb 2020 7. Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) World - Japan News (2019) Convenience Stores Tackle Food Waste. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/ backstories/479/. Accessed Sept 2020 8. Ministry of the Environment - Government of Japan (1994) Quality of the Environmenta in Japan 1994. https://www.env.go.jp/en/wpaper/1994/index.html. Accessed Sept 2010 9. Japan Franchise Association (2019) Convenience Store Statistics Data. https://www.jfa-fc.or.jp. e.ek.hp.transer.com/particle/320.html. Accessed Jan 2020 10. Rapp WV, Islam M (2006) Japanese mini-banks: retail banking services through convenience stores. Asian Bus Manag 5(2):187–206 11. Hoffman M (2017) Prepare for the future, at your convenience, the Japan times. https://www. japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/09/23/national/media-national/prepare-future-convenience/. Accessed Mar 2020

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12. Storz C, Moerke A (2009) Competitiveness of new industries: institutional framework and learning in information technology in Japan, the U.S. and Germany. Routledge, London 13. Francis M (2020) Convenience stores in Japan: ubiquitous and under reform. https:// tokyoesque.com/convenience-stores-in-japan-retail-trends/. Accessed Mar 2021 14. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2020) Food loss and waste/food recycling system. https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/env/frecycle.html. Accessed Mar 2021 15. Seven-Eleven Holdings Co Ltd (2020) Ethical Project. https://www.sej.co.jp/products/ethical. html. Accessed Mar 2021 16. Seven-Eleven Holdings Co., Ltd (2020) Corporate Social Responsability (CSR) Data Book 2020 17. Lawson (2019) Another Choice. https://www.lawson.co.jp/lab/campaign/anotherchoice/. Accessed Mar 2021 18. Yano Research Institute Ltd (2019) Digital Technology Strategy in Fashion Industry in Japan: Key Research Findings 2020. https://www.yanoresearch.com/en/press-release/show/press_id/2 559. Accessed Aug 2020 19. Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (2020) Demonstration tests to be held for food waste reduction taking advantage of electronic tags (RFID). https://www.meti.go.jp/english/ press/2020/1028_003.html. Accessed Dec 2020 20. Lawson, Inc (2020) Creating happiness and harmony in our communities. Annu Rep. 4–57. https://www.lawson.jp/en/ir/library/pdf/annual_report/ar_2020_e.pdf. Accessed on Jan 2021

Chapter 23

An Overview of Sustainability Held During 1992 to 2021 in China: An Industrial Design Perspective Yujian Wang and Edilson Ueda

23.1

Introduction

The concept of sustainable design started late in China. Compared with the United States, Japan, and other countries that have already formed a unique design style, China still has a lot to learn. However, it is not possible to get twice the result with half the effort if we blindly follow the old road of others. If we want to combine theory with practice perfectly, we should explore the development direction suitable for ourselves according to our own national conditions and social needs [1]. Fortunately, many other industries in China also attach great importance to the concept and development of sustainability. Different industries have different values and ways of thinking, which will lead to different modes and methods of sustainable development. Therefore, we believe that by analyzing the understanding and data of enterprises in different industries on sustainable development, it will contribute to the research of sustainable design and its development in China.

23.2

Research Significance

1. China is a country with a large population, which directly leads to a very low per capita share of resources in China. At the same time, a large number of people migrate from rural areas to cities, which also makes the already crowded cities more crowded [2]. In order to balance the relationship between economic Y. Wang (✉) Sustainable Design Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan E. Ueda Sustainable Design Laboratory, Design Research Institute (DRI), Chiba University, Chiba, Japan © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_23

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development and ecological environment protection, the state should promote green consumption mode, and enterprises should also take the road of green development. 2. With the rapid development of the global economy, the design industry is constantly changing. Due to the close relationship between commercial interests and design interests, resulting in the growth and waste of resources and energy consumption [3], designers need to be more determined to take the road of sustainable development and adhere to the principle of sustainable design.

23.2.1

Research Purpose

Since the concept of sustainability was first proposed, Chinese scholars and relevant departments have been advocating research on sustainable design for several decades now. However, most of the information and literature that can be surveyed and collected are still concentrated in the theoretical research stage [4], making it difficult to find research that truly explores sustainable design methods in industrial product design. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to discuss the literature on the current theoretical research method and explore their possible practice through the real case related to industrial design fields.

23.2.2

Research Methods

By searching the Article topic “sustainable development in China” and “sustainable design in China“, as of January 2021, a total of 1647 academic journals can be searched, including 180 dissertations, 47 conference reports, 37 books, and 6 newspaper articles. In the following sections, we summarized the main policies, literature, and experiences related to the Chinese government and enterprises in order to understand the past and present situation of sustainable development in China.

23.3

Results

Reviewing the main source of literature on sustainable development in China is CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), which is the largest Chinese academic journal query and research platform in China, with high credibility [5].

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23.3.1

The Current Sustainable Development in China

23.3.1.1

The Government’s Policy

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China has now become the second largest economy in the world. In 2020, China’s GDP was 101.6 trillion yuan, equivalent to about 14.7 trillion US dollars. GDP per capita is more than US$10,000 [2]. But at the same time of rapid economic development, China is also facing severe resource and environmental problems. Not only is there a shortage of oil and other resources, but also the atmosphere and soil are seriously polluted. Therefore, following the current economic development model, it is difficult to achieve the future development goals. In view of the increasingly serious resource and environmental problems, by 2020, the Chinese government has issued a number of policies and systems related to sustainable development (as shown in Table 23.1). 23.3.1.2

Economic Development

In the past few decades, most Chinese enterprises have implemented the development model of high consumption and high pollution, which has limited China’s sustainable development. Therefore, from 2005, Chinese enterprises began to vigorously promote the development model with a circular economy as the main body. The traditional economic development model is an irreversible linear growth model composed of “resources-products-waste”. The circular economy is characterized by the recycling of resources, a circular economic growth mode of “resources-productsrenewable resources”, and a new strategy to realize the sustainable development of the economy, society, and nature [6]. By consulting the government plan, we collate the detailed activities related to promoting a circular economy in China in a time line way and compare them with the sustainable development policies issued by the government. The details are shown in Table 23.1.

23.3.2

Sustainable Development in Different Chinese Industries

At present, China pursues the social policy of “resource-saving and environmentfriendly” [4]. As a result, the circular economy strategy and the concept of sustainable development, which are famous for the efficient use of resources, have become popular in China and have developed in many industries. In view of the fact that the concept and development of sustainable design in China are still at the initial stage, we believe that by analyzing the efforts and changes made by other industries in China on the road to sustainable development, we can help Chinese industrial designers find originality and uniqueness suitable for China’s national conditions (compared with other countries).

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Table 23.1 Schedule of sustainable and circular economy activities

Date 1992

1994

1998

2000

2002

Major events in the process of sustainable development in China Government activities Private activities • It submitted the “environment and development of China” report to the UN for the first time. Began to realize the importance of environmental problems [Ref. Government work report, 1992–2020] (The same below) • Issued document—ten countermeasures for environment and development. It is the first time to put forward the implementation of sustainable development strategy in China • Revised “forest law” and “land management law” • Approval document— • Professor Wang Haiyan first linked the National outline for ecoconcept of sustainability logical environment prowith economic growth by tection. Put the publishing the article implementation of the “promoting healthy ecosustainable development nomic growth with susstrategy in an important tainable consumption position and comprehenmodel” sively promote the sus[Ref. Theoretical study, tainable development 2000 (01): 26–28] strategy • Qingyuan Fengyu • China’s participation company has successin the Johannesburg fully developed circular Summit (World Summit economy by recycling on Sustainable Developwaste, which is the first ment) has focused the world’s attention on vari- time that industrial ous actions for sustainable enterprises in China have tried to develop circular development economy

Remarks • Sustainable private activities and circular economy have not yet begun • The concept of sustainable development is in the enlightenment stage in China • The Chinese government took the lead in realizing the seriousness of China’s current environmental pollution problem • At this time, the development of China’s sustainable concept is popularized to the public through the formulation of laws and policies by the government • At this stage, China’s reform and opening up and economic construction are developing at a high speed • Industrial pollution began to spread from cities to rural areas, and environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent • The Chinese government has gradually refined its laws and regulations, adhered to the strategy of sustainable development, and correctly handled the relationship between economic development and population, resources, and (continued)

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Table 23.1 (continued)

Date

Major events in the process of sustainable development in China Private activities Government activities

2003

• China published the white paper” China’s mineral resources policy” for the first time to strengthen the modernization and sustainable development of mineral resources • Eight provinces have been approved as national pilot of circular economy. Abandon the original concept of “pollution before treatment”

2005

• Incorporated the circular economy strategy conducive to sustainable development into the fiveyear plan for national economic and social development • The State Council issued the No. 22 document “opinions of the State Council on accelerating the development of circular economy” as a symbol, China’s circular economy work started in an all-round way • “Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China” officially implemented which is the third special circular economy law in the world after Germany and Japan

2009

[Ref. Voice of the people, 2002 (10): 12–13] • Shanghai Printing Group Co., Ltd. through sustainable means such as industrial structure adjustment and enterprise system transformation, the total profit of the company in 2002 was 1.46 billion yuan, an increase of 11.1% over 1.31 billion yuan last year. It proves the feasibility of circular economy [Ref. China Packaging News, 2002-09-09 (001)] • Professor Song Guobin of Huanggang Normal University first explored the idea of “sustainability” from Chinese traditional design and culture, which has important enlightenment and significance for China to realize sustainable development [Ref. Shanxi architecture, 2005,31 (22): 8–9]

Remarks environment • Around the implementation of various agendas, China has set off a climax of sustainable development. Not only all localities and departments of the country began to take action, but also a large number of academic and business research and practice on sustainable development began to emerge • The development trend of China’s sustainable concept began to focus on how to combine the theory with China’s national conditions for better development

• Yu Senlin, a professor of Tsinghua University, through the article “the relationship between consumer culture and sustainable design”, emphasized that economic and market development cannot be separated from sustainable design because they jointly support sustainable development (continued)

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Table 23.1 (continued)

Date

Major events in the process of sustainable development in China Government activities Private activities

2012–2016

• Participation in the United Nations Conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012 • The report “sustainable development index of Chinese enterprises” was released and has been jointly prepared by China Business Council for sustainable development (CBCSD) and China Enterprise Federation (CEC) since 2016

2020

• The white paper“sustainable development of China’s transportation” was issued to promote the interconnection of transportation infrastructure and build an efficient, green, and economically modern comprehensive transportation system

23.3.2.1

[Ref. Industrial design branch of China Society of Mechanical Engineering, 2008:3] • In 2013, China Circular Economy Association was established and began to publish the monthly magazine China circular economy. The purpose is to build an authoritative publishing platform for new technologies and products in the field of circular economy in China and promote the high integration of circular economy and the development of various social undertakings [Ref.Forum of China Circular Economy Association] • According to the list of top 100 sustainable development enterprises in China in 2020, the average score of the top 100 enterprises is 79.2, among which the scores of the automobile industry and mechanical equipment manufacturing industry are higher, and the scores of the consumer service industry are generally lower than 60

Remarks

• During this period, global sustainable governance has opened a new chapter, and China’s sustainable development has entered a new era • With a deepening understanding of the concept of sustainable development, China began to participate more in international cooperation, focusing on helping other developing countries eliminate poverty and hunger, promote economic growth, and strengthen the construction of ecological civilization through sustainable development and circular economy model • Contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to global sustainable development

Home Appliance Industry Sector

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of household appliances. According to the 2021 China household appliance survey report, the number of household appliances in China has exceeded 2.1 billion. However, with its aging and improper storage and disposal, the environmental pollution and threat of waste

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household appliances are becoming increasingly serious. With the continuous compression of social resources, sustainable development is becoming increasingly important to China’s household appliance industry [7]. 23.3.2.2

Haier Group: A Case Study of the Home Appliance Industry in China

In the report “China’s top 500 most valuable brands” released in 2020, Haier Group ranks first among home appliance brands. Such achievements are inseparable from Haier Group’s emphasis on sustainable development. As early as 2000, Haier began the research and development of low-carbon air conditioning technology. According to the PDCA cycle mode proposed by American quality management expert Dr. Hart, the OEC (overall every control and clear) mode is created, which truly penetrates the green concept into the enterprise development and culture [7]. Today, Haier’s development models and methods have been included in the case libraries of Harvard University and the European School of business administration as successful cases and become universal teaching materials, which indicates that Haier has learned from foreign advanced development models at the beginning to enter the forefront of international enterprise development with its own innovation. The specific measures for Haier Group to implement sustainable development are as follows: 1. Green Design Approach: In the financial report from 2019 to 2020 released by Haier, the investment in design and R&D has reached 6.267 billion yuan. At the same time, Haier has cooperated with many world-class enterprises to focus on the recycling of materials. By the end of 2019, Haier Group’s household appliances have won 5 Chinese design awards, 5 Chinese patent awards, 16 Chinese science and technology awards, and 121 German IF design awards [7]. 2. Green Manufacturing Approach: In 2010, Haier established the world’s first low-carbon air conditioning industry chain with a number of top suppliers, completely subverting the traditional supply and demand model. In 2012, Haier Group invested 13.55 million yuan in air and water pollution prevention and control, and 24.05 million yuan in energy saving and consumption reduction, mainly for improving process equipment, improving production efficiency, and reducing energy consumption. After the reform, the energy consumption of Haier electric in 2012 decreased by 3.44% compared with the previous year [8]. 3. Green Recycling Approach: In 2010, the Haier group participated and invested in China’s first vein industry eco industrial park to improve the home appliance recycling system. According to statistics, the annual processing capacity of the industrial park is 1.8 million sets. According to the company’s official website, Haier has developed a number of key recycling technologies to reduce environmental pollution caused

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Table 23.2 Income composition of China’s packaging industry in 2020 Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Industry name Paper and cardboard containers Plastic film manufacturing Plastic packing cases and containers Metal packaging containers and materials Special equipment for plastic processing Glass container Cork products and other wood products

Proportion (%) 28.9 26.9 15.9 11.6 6.5 6.1 4.1

Fig. 23.1 The number of enterprises in China’s packaging industry

by waste household appliances. At the same time, a large number of recycled materials can be recycled. Up to now, Haier Group has recovered 5.1 million sets of waste household appliances and treated 4.2 million sets in total [7]. 23.3.2.3

Plastic Packaging Industry in China

China is a major country in packaging manufacturing and consumption in the world, and the proportion of plastic packaging in the total output value of the packaging industry has exceeded 30% (as shown in Table 23.2). In recent years, China’s plastic packaging industry has been growing steadily (as shown in Fig. 23.1). However, plastic packaging is more difficult to recycle than paper packaging. China’s plastic green packaging forum has been emphasizing that in order to build a low-carbon economy and resource-saving society, the plastic packaging industry must carry out

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structural adjustment and industrial transformation, and carry out sustainable development, to enhance the value of the industry [9]. 23.3.2.4

Huangshan Yongxin Packaging Materials Co., Ltd.: A Case Study

Established in 1992, Huangshan Yongxin packaging materials Co. Ltd. is mainly engaged in the plastic packaging industry, involving food, daily chemical, aviation, and other fields. It is one of the top 100 innovative enterprises in China and can be said to be the first green environmental protection packaging production base in China. There are the following two main reasons for such a high achievement: 1. Pay attention to product development and recycling. Since its establishment, the company has been focusing on the breakthrough and innovation of product design and actively exploring solutions to environmental protection problems. According to the company’s official website, in the product design stage, the use of polyethylene materials, no benzene, no butanone ink, and other non-polluting raw materials for reduction and reuse design, in order to avoid environmental pollution. At the same time, the organic waste gas produced in plastic printing is absorbed and recycled in the production process and remanufacturing process by adsorption and recycling, which not only solves the problem of environmental pollution caused by waste gas emission but also saves a lot of money through recycling and recycling. 2. Attach importance to technical cooperation. Since 2005, the company has carried out cooperation with the China University of Science and Technology, Hefei University of,Technology, and other institutions of higher learning and established post-doctoral research sites. At the same time, it has also carried out in-depth technical cooperation with many domestic counterparts and scientific research institutions as well as internationally famous packaging companies. After reform and development, the company has become the main supplier of Chinese pharmaceutical packaging and dairy packaging. In 2007, it led the construction of China’s first high-tech industrial base of green packaging materials. It has played a positive role in setting an example for the packaging industry to reduce the impact of packaging waste on the environment [10]. 23.3.2.5

Automobile Industry in China

According to the data released by China Automobile Industry Association, by the end of 2020, China has 281 million vehicles. The number of new energy vehicles is 4.92 million, accounting for 1.75% of the total number of vehicles, an increase of 1.11 million or 29.18% over 2019. Among them, the number of pure electric vehicles is four million, accounting for 81% of the total number of new energy vehicles. The increment of new energy vehicles has exceeded one million for three

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consecutive years, showing a trend of rapid growth. Thus, as one of the largest industries in the world, the sustainable development of the automobile industry has been recognized and supported by Chinese consumers. 23.3.2.6

BYD(BiYaDi) Auto: A Case Study

BYD(BiYaDi) group’s main businesses are IT industry, automobile industry, and new energy industry, in which the automobile industry accounts for 90% of the turnover. As of January 22, 2021, BYD’s total market value has reached 662.7 billion yuan, making it the third largest listed auto company in the world after Tesla and Toyota in terms of market value. Such proud achievements are inseparable from the company’s emphasis on environmentally friendly new energy vehicles and sustainable development [11]. In 1995, China’s newly established BYD automobile began to enter the rechargeable battery industry, fully transforming China’s low labor cost advantage into new energy vehicle battery and other competitive advantages. With an absolute price advantage, it occupied 23% of the global market share in 2003 and became the second largest battery manufacturer in the world. In 2007, BYD established a lithium iron phosphate battery production base, which strengthened the core technology advantages and top supplier status of BYD lithium battery and promoted the development of BYD’s new energy vehicles. From 2008 to now, BYD has released a total of 39 new energy vehicles. Due to the accumulation of new energy battery

Fig. 23.2 Publish annual trends

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technology for many years, BYD has become the only enterprise in the world that has mastered the core technologies of new energy vehicle battery, motor, electric control, and charging facilities, vehicle manufacturing, and other core technologies at the same time and has mature marketing experience [11]. On July 19, 2019, BYD signed a cooperation treaty with Toyota Motor. On March 25, 2020, BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co. Ltd. was officially incorporated. The two sides will jointly develop pure electric vehicles and pure electric vehicle power batteries, which also represent the achievements of Chinese automobile enterprises in the field of new energy vehicles, win the recognition of world-class automobile enterprises, and help other automobile enterprises follow up and learn from them.

23.3.3

General View of Sustainable Design in China

Based on the previous sections related to the overview of the sustainable development in China, this section focuses on specific cases related to industrial design and sustainability. From Fig. 23.2, we can see the number of papers on Sustainable Design in the 24 years from 1997 to 2021. It can be clearly seen that the overall trend is on the rise, and the number of papers published in 9 consecutive years from 2012 to 2020 is more than 120. It can be seen that with the progress of science and the development of society, the research on sustainable design has made a great breakthrough both in theory and practice. At the same time, it also shows that people gradually realize the importance of sustainable development and realize that the healthy development of society must rely on a good ecological environment. After sorting out the relevant literature on “China’s sustainable development” and “China’s sustainable design” collected from CNKI, we look for the literature on thinking about China’s sustainable development from the perspective of industrial designers. After looking for papers related to “industrial design in the context of China’s sustainable development” in the collected literature, we found a total of 14 relevant studies (as shown in Table 23.3). In this research, the industrial design fields have an essential role in China’s industrial development and sustainable development. First, they are the bridge between marketing and users. Industrial designers have been looking for different methods in different industrial design activities to provide new solutions for China’s sustainable development. By carefully reading the abstracts of these 14 articles and summarizing the topics of these articles and the main directions and emphases of the research, through analysis and sorting, it is found that there are six articles on sustainable design concepts and methods (No. 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 11), eight articles on sustainable development strategy and sustainable development trend of China in the future (No. 1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14), and four articles introducing research examples (No. 1, 7, 11, 14).

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Table 23.3 Review the literature related to industrial design Subject No 1

2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12

13 14

Time of Author(s) Title publication Research on the development of independent industrial design institutions in Hubei Province based on ecological design strategy AI Xianfeng; Zhang Pei Industrial design 01/20/2019 Sustainable design in industrial design Xue Yaping Beauty and the times 03/15/2014 On the relationship between science and humanity from the definition of industrial design Zhou Chang; Zhang Machine design 05/20/2013 Chao Research on industrial design theory in the period of social transformation Gong Haoqin Journal of Heze University 05/15/2013 Form follows “sustainability”: Application of life cycle assessment in industrial design Wang Shuyi Art and design (theory) 02/15/2013 Diversified development trend of industrial design in the future 07/23/2012 Xu Huocheng; Zhang China Packaging Industry Hua Focus on wood products in industrial design Cheng Xufeng Packaging engineering 03/20/2012 Research on sustainable design in industrial design Shu Jia Enterprise guide 03/15/2012 Sustainable methods of industrial design and the importance of visual presentation Xu Yanan Industrial design 12/15/2011 On the sustainable development of industrial design Chen Xiaoyan New West 12/31/2010 Industrial design strategy and case study for a sustainable lifestyle Wu Zhijun; Li Liangzhi Journal of packaging 07/15/2010 Chinese traditional ideology and culture should be introduced into the selection of industrial design materials Cao Zhipeng Technology Wind 11/20/2008 On industrial design under the guidance of sustainable development strategy Wu Jiang; Wan Ran Packaging engineering 12/15/2003 Preliminary thinking of sustainable design in industrial design Li Xiaoling Journal of Northwest Institute of light 06/25/2001 industry

This shows that the idea of sustainable design in industrial design has been widely accepted in China, but there is still no unified understanding of the concept. There are relatively few local case studies, and where there are case studies, they are mostly of foreign research (e.g. the eleventh paper focuses on a bamboo bicycle project developed by scientists and engineers at Columbia University’s Earth Institute; the first paper is based on Porter’s diamond theory model).

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Analyzing Sustainable Design in China

Although each of these 14 articles has a different focus, through careful reading, we can still find some common points. We believe that sorting out these common research points can help to clearly grasp the current concerns and interests of Chinese industrial design scholars.

23.3.3.1.1

The Economic Aspects

Almost 14 articles mentioned that industrial design guides and caters to human consumption concepts. It can be said that contemporary products have been completed jointly by designers and consumers, and the concept of “green consumption” based on sustainable design concept is just in line with modern people’s understanding and pursuit of design. Therefore, most articles believe that through the adjustment of the concept of industrial design, the current single commercial market research can be transformed into planning research focusing on long-term development. It can also transform the single product modeling design into the design of the whole product life cycle.

23.3.3.1.2

The Cultural Aspects

As we all know, the concept of sustainable design is to bring the design behavior into the “human machine environment” system, to realize the social value and protect the natural value, and to promote the common prosperity of humans and nature. This is in line with the traditional Chinese idea of “harmony between man and nature”. In the tenth document on the concept of sustainable development of industrial design, the author specifically mentioned that developing the concept of sustainable development in China’s industrial design field should inherit and carry forward a more traditional culture. If don’t increase the level of attention and develop for a long time, China’s design will lose the ability of independent innovation and make the design formal [4].

23.3.3.1.3

The Social Aspects

Social transformation is a necessary stage in the process of social modernization. With the change in social structure and the formation of consumption habits, industrial design has undergone great changes from concept to form, from purpose to means. With the sustainable development of China’s economy, people’s living standards have also been greatly improved, so people’s choice of products has changed, which also makes the industrial design industry start to innovate, and

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Table 23.4 Research direction of some universities in China Research unit Tsinghua University Chongqing University Shandong University Huazhong University of Science and Technology Shanghai Jiaotong University

Research direction Circuit board recycling Sustainable manufacturing Modular design Product life cycle design Recycling of automobile parts

Main research achievements Electronic product parts recycling Resource utilization analysis in the manufacturing process Application of modular design method Product life cycle analysis Research on the design method of detachable parts

sustainable design has become the core concept of industrial design after social transformation [3]. 23.3.3.2

The Sustainable Design in China Universities: A General View

Although the design concept of sustainable design has not been developed for a long time in China, with the support of the state and the government, universities and research institutes have realized the importance of sustainable design for a long time and have carried out extensive research on the theory and application of sustainable design. In 2009, six top design universities in China (Table 23.4) jointly launched Sustainable Design Alliance. In 2014, Wuhan University of Technology, Jiangnan University, Tsinghua University, and Hunan University joined the International Sustainable Design Learning Network (LeNS-in) as one of the first Chinese university members. Internationalize the continuous design of higher education and form an open/non-profit multi-level “shared learning” knowledge dissemination system. Although the teaching and practice of sustainable design is still in the trial stage in China, it has been pushed from theoretical discussion to practical application. At present, among the more than 1200 ordinary colleges and universities in China, nearly 600 will turn to vocational education in order to cultivate qualified and technical talents. 23.3.3.3

Sustainable Design Modules and Academic Projects

The global design industry has generally realized the importance of sustainable design. However, in China, there are not many cases of sustainable design projects that have been completed and put into use. Most of them are conceptual designs. Based on the analysis of the literature related to “sustainable design teaching and practice in China”, we believe that there are the following three main problems:

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Table 23.5 Sustainable design courses offered by some universities in China Research unit Tsinghua University Academy of Arts&Design

Jiangnan University Academy of Design Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Academy of Industrial Design Hunan University Academy of Arts&Design

Central Academy of Fine Art Wuhan University of Technology Academy of Arts&Design Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts Academy of Arts&Design Beijing University of Technology Academy of Arts&Design

Course name Undergraduate compulsory course: Sustainable product design Postgraduate course: Theory and practice of sustainable design Postgraduate courses: Product service system design System innovation and design strategy Undergraduate elective courses: Sustainability and product design Sustainable and service system design Undergraduate compulsory course: Product service system design Undergraduate elective courses: Sustainable design of products Postgraduate course: Research on Sustainable Design Postgraduate course: Sustainable system design Undergraduate elective courses: Cultural product innovation and sustainable design Product design practice Undergraduate elective courses: Thinking and practice of sustainable design Research on integrated innovative design

1. Sustainable design is still a developing theory, its definition and nature are not accurate, and there is a certain degree of fuzziness. At present, there is no sustainable design evaluation system suitable for China, which makes it difficult for scholars and designers to accurately evaluate and judge the “sustainable” degree and effect of a design product [12]. 2. Chinese universities only take “sustainability” as a design concept, which is mentioned in different design courses. Only a small number of design colleges and universities set up special sustainable design courses (as shown in Table 23.5), but more exploratory research, lacking sufficient theoretical knowledge and effective teaching methods. Causing students to be unable to effectively learn and apply relevant theoretical knowledge in practice [13]. 3. Most of the learning contents of Chinese college students are based on the theories and data summarized by European, American, and Japanese countries which are the first to study sustainable design. However, due to the differences in language and expression, many theories can not be directly used in the teaching and practice of Chinese universities. Therefore, when facing some commercial design projects, although students can find the problem, they often have the confusion of not knowing how to start [12].

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In response to such a dilemma, Chinese universities are also making some changes. For example, in October 2011, Tsinghua University and Hunan University launched the LeNS-China platform (China Sustainable Design Learning Network: http://www.lens-china.org). Through cooperation with universities in Europe and Asia, an international sustainable design learning network has been established to strengthen the cooperation and exchange between different countries and regions in the field of sustainable design education [14]. In addition, Chinese design education circles have also begun to advocate signature pedagogies, which are widely used in European and American higher education circles. It is emphasized that higher education in the new era should develop teaching methods with professional and vocational training practice as the main line, so as to make up for the deficiency of the traditional teacher led classroom [15]. Conduct teaching based on teaching and research themes, allowing students to form a design team, providing more opportunities for collaboration and sharing, enabling students to learn and apply relevant knowledge as soon as possible, and actively seeking solutions to problems. Many scholars feel that this kind of teaching content is flexible and serves academic objectives and pays more attention to the cultivation of design innovative thinking [16]. 23.3.3.4

Development of Industrial Products

Due to the rise of sustainable design and green design concepts, the industry of industrial design is no longer limited to using simple forms to highlight functions but to develop unique creativity on the basis of practicality. At present, the application of the concept of sustainable development in China’s industrial design products reflects that we should pay attention to and reduce the degree of environmental pollution when using energy and materials. On the other hand, we should take the concept of sustainable development as the selling point while highlighting the original features and pursuing novelty and uniqueness. 23.3.3.5

Implementation of Sustainable Design

Referring to the works of the second “Design Beijing, China” exhibition in 2019 (including more than 200 Chinese leading design brands and more than 1000 pieces of furniture, kitchen and bathroom, home appliances, lighting, materials, home decoration, and office works with design characteristics), we can find three common ways for Chinese industrial designers to integrate the concept of sustainable development into product design-specific application [17]. 1. It is widely used in electronic products. Design method through refinement and scaling down modeling. While maintaining basic functionality, reduce product volume, reduce material usage, and facilitate transportation and portability.

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2. This is a design method to reduce the space occupied by large volume products. It can be divided into two types: axial folding and parallel folding. Because the principle is relatively simple, it has a wide range of applications. 3. At present, consumers pay more and more attention to the compatibility between a new product and other old products at home. Based on this, the rationality and separability of product function are the top priority of consumer demand.

23.4

Discussion

On the basis of the previous sections, we reviewed the sustainable development of China and the development of industrial design in China. It can be seen that although there are many deficiencies in China’s design industry, the prospect is still very good. After all, the role of the industrial design industry in China’s industry and society has become more and more important. In this review and research, industrial design has entered all walks of life in China, has become an integral part of people’s lives, and has played a fundamental role in the process of China’s sustainable development. Nowadays, people’s life reflects the influence of industrial design and changes due to the existence of industrial design. Based on the importance of industrial designers, we find that the impact of society on industrial design is reflected not only in the development of design ideas but also through all links of design. These constraints and influences, together with various effects of industrial design on society, are intertwined and interact with each other, which not only promotes the progress of society but also makes industrial design develop continuously with the social times.

23.5

Conclusion

By reviewing the sustainable development process that occurred in China from 1992 to 2021, several key factors that contribute to sustainable development are summarized. For example: (1) the government promotes the large-scale promotion and use of green energy and products through the formulation of policies and the use of the market mechanism and gives policy support to enterprises for sustainable development, so as to help the society speed up the formation of the development mode of “saving resources and protecting the environment”; (2) establish more eco industrial parks. The waste generated by one enterprise will be used as a source of benefit for another enterprise, This circular economic development model can further assist enterprises in achieving sustainable development while improving economic efficiency. From the perspective of industrial design, the lack of attention and low implementation rate of sustainable design courses in universities are the important factors

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hindering the development of sustainable design concept in China’s design industry. However, with the gradual change in university education and the emphasis on the combination of theoretical learning and enterprise practice, it is believed that more sustainable design projects will be successful and put into use in the near future. We believe that on the road to developing a circular economy, industrial designers can be like lubricants between gears to provide continuous power for the sustainable development of enterprises and society!

References 1. Fei L, Yue Z, Hui H (1998) Green Manufacturing--the sustainable development model of modern manufacturing industry. China Mech Eng 9(6):76–78 2. Sustainable Development Research Group, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1999) Report on China’s sustainable development strategy. Science Press, Beijing 3. Haoqin G (2013) Research on industrial design theory in the period of social transformation. J Heze Univ 35:183 4. Liming S, Jiping Z (2011) The embodiment of sustainable design idea in modern design. Sci Technol Innov 31:227–228 5. Xuejie L (2021) Statistical report on the publication and dissemination of CNKI. Yunnan Agric Sci Technol 03:2–65 6. Yong J, Zhijun F, Dingjiang C (2010) Circular economy: concept and innovation. China Eng Sci 1:4–11 7. Wang R (2012) Research on the sustainable development of Haier’s household appliances brand. Price Market 05:013 8. Tianshu S (2021) Evolution of organizational structure of traditional manufacturing enterprises: a case study based on Haier group. Oper Manage 04:35–38 9. Xie R (2021) Current situation of degradable plastics industry. In: Comprehensive utilization of resources in China, vol 39, p 71 10. Multiple measures for sustainable development and transformation of packaging industry. China Packag 2020;40(10):19–20 11. Jianyang S, sun Tong. (2021) Investment value analysis and development strategy of BYD automobile. Contin Bridge Vision 05:82–83 12. Mingyue L (2015) Sustainable design practice and teaching in China. Des Art Res 5(04): 116–121 13. Yingxian X (2015) Rethinking of “sustainable design education” in China. Art Educ 03:28–31 14. Shu F (2008) Exploration and practice of sustainable development design education. Decor Furnish 05:125–127 15. Shulman LS (2005) Signature pedagogles in the professions [DB/OL]. Daedalus 134(3):52–60 16. Coldham S (2009) Learning to be an architent:the office and the tudio. In: 6th International Conference on research work and learning, Roskide, Denmark, pp 7–8 17. Jia G (2019) Design in 2019. Sustainable design, green creative innovation and future in Beijing, China. Fashion Beijing 11:166–169

Chapter 24

Increased Personal Protective and Medical Equipment Manufacturing to Fight COVID-19: An Egregious Approach for the Environment Damola Ikeoluwa Akano, Winifred Ijomah, and James Windmill

24.1 24.1.1

Introduction Background on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The importance of PPE during a global pandemic is not deniable, such as during the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 and the Ebola outbreak of 2014. As health and social personnel increased their use of PPE while treating or caring for patients, the general public was also encouraged (and mandated in some cases) to use PPE, especially face masks, hand gloves and face protectors, to reduce the spread of the infection [1]. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE UK), PPE refers to any piece of material or equipment that aims to protect or shield the user from risks [2]. Risk is described as anything that may result in direct or indirect harm to a person, animal or property [3]. PPE may include head protection, hand protection, eye and face protection, breathing apparatus, protective clothing, foot protection, hearing protection, respiratory protection and fall management equipment [4]. In a publication by the HSE for the UK Government, face masks (such as the N95 and the FFP2 masks), gloves, aprons, body gowns, eye or face protection, headwear or footwear were reported to offer significant protection from the novel SARS-Cov-2 D. I. Akano (✉) University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Strathclyde Sustainability & Remanufacturing Research Group, Glasgow, UK e-mail: [email protected] W. Ijomah · J. Windmill University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Strathclyde Sustainability & Remanufacturing Research Group, Glasgow, UK Scottish Institute for Remanufacturing (SIR), Glasgow, UK © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_24

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and this plays an important role in the national fight against the coronavirus pandemic [5].

24.1.2

COVID-19 Pandemic and the PPE

Before the pandemic, the use of PPE wasn’t widespread. Even in clinical settings, the use of PPE was reserved for only critical conditions such as during surgery and in infectious disease (ID) wards. Thus, the demand requirements for PPE were relatively low and the NHS source their PPE from a centralised procurement facility (the NHS Supply Chain) [6]. Further, only 1% of the NHS demand for PPE was met by local manufacturers. However, early on during the pandemic, when the use of PPE became imperative not just in clinical settings but in everyday usage of the entire population, the existing supply framework for PPE was sprained with uncontrollable demands. This propelled the drive toward improving local production of PPE and scaling up existing supply chain networks to handle the distribution of locally manufactured PPE. By striking manufacturing and supply deals with numerous local businesses, the UK was able to ensure that vital PPE is available at the right time to frontline health and social care workers. As a result, by December 2020 the UK Government estimated that up to three-quarters of local demands for PPE were met by manufacturers based in the UK [7] and distributed efficiently by supply and logistic networks within the UK.

24.1.3

PPE Manufacturing

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production of plastic-based personal protective equipment has increased overwhelmingly. This increased manufacturing of PPE presents a new perspective of concern relating to its long-term impact on the environment and sustainability goals. Moreover, the demand for PPE and other critical medical equipment is expected to remain the same even during the postpandemic period. The consequence of increasing manufacturing activities is a direct increase in raw material consumption or resource depletion, energy consumption, discharge of toxic substances, GHG emissions and waste generation which significantly impacts the environment. The UK government supported businesses and organisations to scale up PPE manufacturing throughout the UK leading to collaborations with tech and manufacturing giants such as Amazon, the Royal Mint and Jaguar Land Rover. As a result, several new PPE and other medical device manufacturing plants were set up across the UK. More than 100 UK businesses were engaged which produce gloves, face covering (or visors), cloth face masks, medical grade face masks, protective

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gowns and aprons, safety boots and plastic containers for hand sanitisers and ventilators. In Scotland, some of the key manufacturers are Alpha Solway, Honeywell, Keela, Gentex, INEOS and Plexus. Before the pandemic, Honeywell’s manufacturing facility in Scotland specialised in the assembly and testing services for industryspecific solutions to help aircraft, buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains and workers. However, they were engaged to manufacture 4.5 million respirators and 70 million FFP2 and FFP3 face masks [8, 9]. Alpha Solway received the £53 million order to manufacture 232 million surgical grade face masks, two million visors and six million FFP3 masks to meet up to 87% of Scotland’s health and social care demands [10]. Keela secured a deal to manufacture non-sterile gowns in Scotland for the NHS.

24.1.4

PPE Life Cycle

Critical steps in a product life cycle include raw material extraction, material processing, manufacturing and packaging, transportation, product consumption or usage and end-of-life management, as shown in Fig. 24.1. Thus, this chapter presents a discussion on the life cycle of PPE by highlighting its pollution and environmental footprints using five critical life cycle themes. These themes take shape from a comprehensive literature review and discussion with Raw materials extraction and processing

Raw materials e.g. Meltblown and Spunbond PPE and medical equipment manufacturing

Transportation and logistics

PPE Lifecycle

Consumption and usage Waste PPE PPE End of life management

Fig. 24.1 Critical themes in the PPE life cycle

Face masks, gloves, aprons etc Medical equipment. e.g. ventilator

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practitioners directly or indirectly involved in the life cycle of PPE in Scotland, UK. This chapter is not fixated on presenting a conclusive evaluation of the life cycle impact of PPE manufacturing as a result of COVID-19. Rather, the focus is on presenting an overview of the long-term impact of PPE manufacturing on the people and planet. As a result, this research aims to stir up discussions on the likely menace of used personal protective equipment on the environment in the post-pandemic period. An attempt is also made to discuss the scale of the problem and to propose potential solutions to these issues.

24.1.5

Scope of Research

In this article, personal protective equipment is described as any medical equipment that is approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) as providing a sufficient level of protection against the novel SARS-Cov-2 in line with government guidelines [5]. As such, this article covers PPE such as gloves, aprons or gowns, face masks, eye/face protection (e.g. visors) etc. The research is aimed at the global geographical landscape but attempts to highlight situations within the UK relating to the life cycle of PPE, especially in Scotland. The five (5) themes covered in the report relate to the extraction and processing of raw materials, PPE manufacturing, logistics and transport, consumption and usage of PPE and the management of used PPE.

24.2 24.2.1

Methodology Literature Review

The method used in this research is a literature review of published (journal, magazine, newspaper) articles, reports, statutes and webpages. A search was performed on databases such as Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science using search keywords such as ‘personal protective equipment’, PPE, COVID-19, ‘PPE manufactur*’, ‘medical equipment for COVID-19’, ‘UK COVID-19 PPE sustainab*’, ‘PPE environmental impact’ and ‘COVID-19 medical equipment reprocess*’. To simplify the search and expand search results, Boolean operators such as ‘AND’/ ‘OR’ and wildcard operator ‘*’ were used. Searches were also made on Google Scholar using similar keywords to identify good quality materials. Discussion on the life cycle of PPE appears to be gaining ground in the literature. As the route out of the pandemic gets clearer through effective vaccination programmes, such as in the UK, the focus is gradually shifting to the post-pandemic era. Table 24.1 presents a summary of related publications. However, these studies fail to extensively discuss the life cycle of personal protective equipment using the

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Table 24.1 Summary of related publications reviewed in this study Author Urban and Nakada (2021)

Title COVID-19 pandemic: Solid waste and environmental impacts in Brazil

Saadat, Rawtani and Hussain (2020)

Environmental perspective of COVID-19

Kumar et al. (2020)

COVID-19 creating another problem? Sustainable solution for PPE disposal through LCA approach

Klemeš, Fan and Jiang (2020) Singh et al. (2020)

The energy and environmental footprints of COVID-19 fighting measures – PPE, disinfection, supply chains Environmentally sustainable management of used personal protective equipment

Nowakowski et al. (2020)

Disposal of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge for waste collection companies and society: A case study in Poland

Scope of study Assessed the environmental impacts caused by shifts in solid waste production and management due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil Examined the socioenvironmental perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic and identified the need for new rules and regulations to ensure a green and clean environment Performed a life cycle assessment of PPE kits under two disposal scenarios: Landfill and incineration Assessed the footprints of PPE and measures used in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic Proposed different strategies for better monitoring of the life cycle of PPE Analyses waste management issues from multiple perspectives in Poland

critical steps in the product life cycle. As such, researchers have failed to address the five (5) key life cycle themes discussed in this chapter.

24.2.2

Industry Engagement

To support findings from the literature review, semi-structured interviews were held with representatives from PPE or equipment manufacturers and suppliers to understand their processes and concerns when it comes to life cycle considerations of the PPE. The companies engaged in this study are based in the UK and interviews centred around local manufacturing, logistics and transportation, consumption and usage and end-of-life management of PPE and medical equipment produced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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24.3 24.3.1

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Findings and Discussions Raw Materials Processing

The intrinsic raw materials used in the manufacturing of face masks, hand gloves, non-sterile gowns and aprons, bottles for hand sanitisers etc. are plastic-based polymeric substances [11]. The use of polymeric materials as raw materials for medical and healthcare equipment and tools manufacturing is mostly because of low cost and lightweight [12]. These materials are made up of substances such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PUR), polyacrylonitrile (PAN), polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC) etc. [13–15]. As a result of the increasing local manufacturing of PPE, the rate of extraction and consumption of raw materials have increased. Raw materials used in the production of face masks are meltblown and spunbond (both made from non-woven polypropylene), elastic cord and film bagging for masks. For face masks and PPE gowns production, PE, PP, PVC, PUR etc. are thermoplastic polymers made from the polymerisation of their equivalent monomers. These polymers can be made from a petrochemical base or from biomaterials such as used cooking oil (UCO). The environmental footprint of UCO-based polypropylene is generated mostly from the polymerisation process, hydrogen production, LPG production and LPG combustion [16]. The impact of these processes is significant on climate change, energy use and water consumption [17, 18]. Although most polymeric substances used in face mask manufacturing are widely considered safe for human application, the impact of the production process is not inconsequential. Waste resources from the raw material extraction and processing phase include gases, wastewater and solid waste which may inadvertently be released into the environment, in soil or water, thereby harming living organisms in their natural habitat. Figure 24.2 shows the raw material extraction and processing for PPE production.

24.3.2

Manufacturing Process

A significant increase in manufacturing activities means that higher quantity of PPE manufacturing wastes, which are mostly hazardous, are produced even though the capacity to handle, decontaminate and treat them remains small. This means that the recycling rate of wastes from PPE manufacturing would be lower, and more hazardous substances may be inadvertently discharged into the environment without any form of treatment (refer to Fig. 24.3). When untreated or partially treated wastewater is discharged directly into water bodies, the impact is severe on the marine ecosystem due to the toxins in the wastewater. Also, solid wastes, metal chips, polymer fibres etc. released into water bodies have a dire impact on the environment. Thermal pollution is also a common occurrence when wastewater at

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Increased Personal Protective and Medical Equipment Manufacturing to. . .

Electricity Chemicals/ Water catalysts

Electricity & Heat Catalysts

Steam cracking

Water

Bonding material

Water

Polymer: 1. Polypropylene (PP) 2. PE 3. PVC 4. PUR

Wastewater

Wastewater Waste gases e.g Methane, benzene etc

Polymerisation process

Raw monomer: 1. Propylene 2. Ethylene 3. Urethane 4.etc.

Raw materials: 1. Petrochemical 2. Cooking Oil 3. Bio-materials

Electricity & Heat

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Raw material products: 1. Meltblown 2. Spunbond 3. etc.

Wastewater Recovered monomers

Waste gases e.g Methane, benzene etc

Solidwastes

Fig. 24.2 Raw material extraction and processing for PPE

Scissors/cutters Water Energy

Packaging materials Chemicals

Materials: 1. Meltblown 2. Spunbond 3. Elastic cord and ribbons 4. Film bagging 5. Fabrics (cotton, rayon, woolen etc)

Liquid wastes e.g. oil, water etc

Basic sewing supplies

Solid wastes e.g. scrap metal, scrap fabric, scrap Recovered materials PP, PE etc

Fig. 24.3 PPE manufacturing process

Manufacturing process

PPE: 1. Facemasks 2. Gloves 3. Aprons

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high temperature is released into nearby water bodies for cooling. Thermal pollution depletes oxygen levels in water which may harm aquatic organisms. There is a paucity of data on the actual manufacturing process, energy requirements and the quantity of raw materials needed for producing a unit of personal protective equipment. However, the impact of manufacturing wastes on the environment is high. Wastes of the manufacturing process, in solid form, semi-solid, liquids or gases, may be hazardous. These wastes can be recycled or returned to the environment by sending to landfill or incineration which produces bottom ash and GHG emissions. Industrial wastes may eventually contaminate soil and nearby water bodies. In Scotland, as of 2017 industrial waste generated was assumed to be 1.54 million tonnes with a recycling rate of 53.4% [19]. The implication of this is 708,400 tonnes of industrial wastes returned to the environment either to landfill or through incineration. While legislations have been enacted to ensure cleaner treatment of industrial wastes, enforcement of such practices is always difficult.

24.3.3

Transportation and Logistics Network

The healthcare supply chain network is a complex system involving several agencies including the suppliers of raw materials, the manufacturers, distributors, the retailers and the customers, and thus the supply and distribution of PPE requires a high level of efficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the gross inefficiencies in the supply chain and logistic networks of healthcare supplies including essential equipment, tools and materials. The footprint, pollution and energy consumption of transporting PPE vary depending on the mode of transportation. For example, on average air freight transport consumes 8.2–26 MJ/tkm of energy, 0.24–0.76 l/tkm of fuel and releases 600–1933 g/tkm of CO2, whereas shipping energy consumption is 0.1–1.9 MJ/tkm [20]. However, since most of the transportation and movement of PPE during the pandemic are local and within the UK, it is assumed that the main modes of transporting the products would be by road or rail. The energy consumption, fuel consumption and CO2 emission for road and rail transport are shown in Table 24.2. Table 24.2 Environmental footprints of PPE logistics [20] Mode of transportation Road 3.5-tonne load 9-tonne load 51-tonne load Rail Electric train Diesel train

Energy consumption (MJ/tkm)

Fuel consumption (l/tkm)

CO2 Emissions (g/tkm)

1.5–2.8 1.0–1.7 0.42–0.53

0.043–0.078 0.028–0.049 0.012–0.015

104–186 67–116 28–35

0.03–0.13 0.24–0.34

0.027 kWh/tkm 5.6–8.0 g/tkm

– 18–25.5

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24.3.4

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Consumption and Usage

Globally, the WHO estimated that 89 million face masks, 76 million hand gloves, and 1.6 million protective eyewear are required on a monthly basis to combat COVID-19 [21]. The UK Government has proposed legislations to enforce wearing face masks to access essential services. An implication of this is the inevitable use of face masks, hand gloves, sanitisers. Based on the population, the assumed acceptance rate of face masks, and the average daily face masks per capita, the total daily face mask usage across the U.K. (by nations) can be estimated using the equation proposed by [22] and is shown in Table 24.3. The equivalent quantity of PPE waste generated is therefore substantial and the overall impact on the environment can not be described as insignificant. TDF =

Pop: × Urb: × FAR × ADFPC 10, 000

where TDF = Total daily face mask. Pop. = Total population. Urb. = Urban population. FAR = Face masks acceptance rate (%). ADFPC = Average daily face masks per capita (most face masks should only be worn once and not longer than for a day). Recent publications have characterised the indiscriminate disposal of used PPE globally [12–14, 23, 24]. However, in the UK and other European countries, the disposal and treatment of used PPE appear to be performed more in line with government guidelines [25]. According to the WWF report, the inappropriate disposal of only 1% of the total face mask usage, for example, the used face mask Table 24.3 Total daily face masks in the UK

Location UK England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland a

Populationa 66,796,900 56,287,000 5,463,300 1,893,700 3,152,900

COVID19 casesb (1/04/ 2021) 4,353,254 3,807,387 218,832 117,503 209,532

Urban populationc (%) 77.20 83.40 71.00 65.00 64.90

ons.gov.uk [27] gov.uk [28], gov.scot [29] and gov.wales [30] c ons.gov.uk [27], NISRA [31] d Arbitrary data b

Face mask acceptance rated (%) 85 80 90 85 85

Average daily face masks per capitad 2 2 2 2 2

Total daily face mask used 87,662,603 75,109,373 6,982,097 2,092,539 3,478,595

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Table 24.4 Estimated quantity of inappropriately discarded face masks

Location UK England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland a

Populationa 66,796,900 56,287,000 5,463,300 1,893,700 3,152,900

COVID19 casesb (1/04/ 2021) 4,353,254 3,807,387 218,832 117,503 209,532

Total daily face mask used 87,662,603 75,109,373 6,982,097 2,092,539 3,478,595

1% of TDF inappropriately discarded 876,626 751,094 69,821 20,925 34,786

Monthly quantity of inappropriately discarded face masks (≈30 days a month) 26,298,781 22,532,812 2,094,629 627,762 1,043,578

a ons.gov.uk [27] gov.uk [28], gov.scot [29] and gov.wales [30]

b

thrown directly into the environment, would result in 100 million toxic face masks monthly in the environment (in water or the soil) [26]. The consequence of this in the UK is shown in Table 24.4. The estimates given in Tables 24.3 and 24.4 highlight the potential environmental challenges in the future especially when it comes to dealing with used PPE. Estimated based on the assumption that only 1% is disposed of incorrectly, this research shows that more than 26 million face masks in the UK alone (two million in Scotland) may end up in the soil or inside water bodies. This excludes data on hand gloves, aprons, gowns, visors and other PPE. These concerns have led to an increase in the usage of cloth masks which are washable and cost-effective since the manufacture requires low-cost chiffon, spandex, cotton quilts and synthetic silks rather than plastic-based polymers [32– 34]. However, cloth masks also present some form of danger to marine organisms if they end up in water bodies. This is because aquatic animals can become trapped in the straps. As a result, calls to cut the straps before disposal have been made. However, attempting to cut the straps from used masks would increase the risk of the user contracting the virus [12, 14, 34].

24.3.5

End-of-Life Management of PPE

Globally, existing infrastructure cannot handle the volume of COVID-19-related wastes. Available evidence suggests a significant increase in the generation of waste in clinical, health and social care activities across the globe. Saadat et al. (2020) reported a sixfold increase in medical waste products in Wuhan, China and Urban and Nakada (2021) assumed a twofold increase in medical wastes in Brazil. Wastes of PPE could easily become a menace post-COVID-19. Waste management companies working for health and social care organisations may have already taken precautions in handling used PPE wastes using decontamination strategies that would kill the coronavirus. However, the handling, decontamination and disposal

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Plastic packaging

Paper labelling for waste

Hospital PPE: 1. Surgical face masks 2. N95 facemasks 3. Visors 4. Gowns/Aprons etc.

Household PPE: 1. Face masks 2. Gloves 3. Visors etc.

Exhaust and emissions from vehicle Plastic Transportation packaging fuel

Paper labelling for waste Electricity & Heat

Water Energy Catalysts

Waste PPE

Medical waste storage

Transportation

Incineration

Waste PPE

Household waste storage

Transportation

Incineration or landfill

Plastic packaging

Transportation fuel Exhaust and emissions from vehicle

Energy

Catalysts Water

359

Bottom Ash

Bottom Ash

GHG emissions Wastewater

GHG emissions

Wastewater Toxic substances

Fig. 24.4 EoL PPE management

of COVID-19-related wastes are already at breaking point, just as are health and social care capabilities. The WHO guideline [35] on handling PPE and other infectious medical wastes through mandatory incineration has already overwhelmed existing incineration facilities. Incineration gives bottom ash residue and discharges toxic GHG emissions [15] (see Fig. 24.4). Effective management of end-of-life or end of use PPE is a major cause of concern globally. The UK regulatory agencies released guidelines on the management of PPE wastes [25]. Nowakowski et al. (2020) investigated waste management issues associated with PPE wastes from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ardusso et al. (2021) discussed the strategies implemented in the USA and the Republic of Ireland to encourage the reuse and reprocessing of used PPE using effective decontamination techniques. Howard et al. (2021) provided evidence to support the efficacy of using cloth face masks as an alternative to those made from polymeric non-biodegradable substances. Face masks made from textile materials can be reused after decontamination by washing with soap and water. Kumar et al. (2020) assessed the life cycle impact of PPE based on the disposal channel (i.e. incineration versus landfill treatment). There is growing discussion about the management of end of use PPE and whether to recycle, landfill or incinerate. Questions have been raised in literature such as ‘which PPE is recyclable and the costs involved?’ ‘what better strategies are available for handling used PPE wastes?’ etc. However, it is important to establish that used PPE, especially those of medical personnel, are very infectious and improper management or handling of used PPE is a leading source of infection among health and social care workers [36]. PPE wastes constitute plastic-based polymers 20–25% by weight [37]. According to Singh et al. (2020), the recycling or recovery rate of plastic polymers such as polypropylene in the United States is 3%

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whereas in the UK 32% of all plastic is recycled [37]. This results in a vast quantity of unrecycled or non-recyclable plastic wastes. The concerns about the environmental impact of PPE have led countries such as the Republic of Ireland and the USA to start encouraging the application of strategies to reduce plastic consumption for PPE production and reuse (as much as possible and safely) and reprocess PPE. Such reprocessing techniques require effective decontamination processes. Ilyas et al. (2020) suggested the use of ultraviolet light, ethylene oxide and hydrogen peroxide vapour to decontaminate PPE [12, 38].

24.4

Conclusion

Research has shown that the response to combat transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic through a radical yet pragmatic approach of scaling up local manufacturing activities of PPE is expected to have a long-term impact on the environment. From raw material extraction, through the manufacturing, logistics and transportation, consumption and usage, to the disposal of used PPE, the impacts of increased local manufacturing of PPE are likely to undermine the drive for sustainable development. There is a need to manage and carefully plan for the post-pandemic residual impact of PPE manufacturing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This would require a significant behavioural change in the handling and disposal of used PPE. This research corroborates the findings of Singh et al. (2020) which highlight the difficulty in effectively managing the life cycle of personal protective equipment. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the increase in plastic production during the COVID-19 pandemic does not become a menace, affecting lives and the environment. The following recommendations are proposed as a solution based on public-private partnership (PPP):

24.4.1

Discourage the Use of Single-Use PPE

Single-use personal protective equipment should be discouraged outside clinical settings. Its production should be gradually reduced while providing more investments to encourage the production of reusable PPE. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3Rs of circular economy) should inform policy making around PPE.

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Improve Used PPE Collection, Sorting and Recycling

Significant effort should be made to improve the collection, sorting, disinfection and recycling of used PPE. One possibility is to encourage large-scale disinfection and sorting of PPE wastes using robust technological capabilities.

24.4.3

Improve the Capabilities of Manufacturing and Supply Chain to Handle Wastes

Pay more attention to domestic industrial capacity and the future of manufacturing industries. The development of more robust strategies to monitor the manufacturing and distribution of PPE is proposed. People should be encouraged to separate PPE waste from other types of waste and send it to appropriate waste management channels.

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Chapter 25

Silver Recovery from Spent Photovoltaic Panel Sheets Using Electrical Wire Explosion Y. Imaizumi, S. Lim, T. Koita, K. Mochizuki, Y. Takaya, T. Namihira, and C. Tokoro

25.1

Introduction

To realize a low-carbon society, it is necessary to accelerate the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through the effective use of natural energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) power generation [1]. In Japan, the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff was introduced in 2012 under the “Act on Special Measures concerning Procurement of Renewable Energy Electricity by Electric Utilities.” Since the 2000s, the global demand for PV power greatly increased. As a result, the introduction of PV has expanded significantly, from small-scale individual houses to largescale mega-solar power plants, and the amount installed has increased sixfold from 9.11 million kW in 2012 to 55 million kW in 2019 [2]. Because the lifetime of PV panels is reported to be about 25 years, it seems that a significant increase in disposed PV panels will become a problem around 2030 [3, 4].

Y. Imaizumi (✉) Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] S. Lim · T. Koita Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan K. Mochizuki Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan Retoca Laboratory LLC, Chiba, Japan Y. Takaya · C. Tokoro Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan T. Namihira Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 S. Fukushige et al. (eds.), EcoDesign for Sustainable Products, Services and Social Systems I, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3818-6_25

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The majority of currently installed PV panels are crystalline silicon-based PVs. Silicon PV panels are composed of an aluminum frame, a junction box, a glass plate, a back sheet made of multilayer plastics such as polyvinyl fluoride and polyethylene terephthalate, ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer as an encapsulant, silicon, and nonferrous metals such as Cu and Ag wires for current collection [5]. The PV recycling process can be roughly classified into dismantling, sorting (physical separation), and chemical processes [6]. In the dismantling process, the aluminum frame and junction box are separated from the PV panel. The glass plate can be separated with high accuracy by the hot-knife method or by grinding the glass toward horizontal recycling [7, 8]. In the sorting process, PV panels are crushed mainly by shredders and are separated into glass, metals such as Cu and Ag, Si, and resin by the combined method of specific gravity separation, magnetic separation, and eddy current separation. The sorting enables the processing of a large amount of spent materials, but it is necessary to improve the purity of each recovered material. Finally, in the chemical process, the resin is burned, and then, high-purity glass and metals are recovered by pressurization and leaching. It is easy to control harmful substances such as fluorine in the chemical process; however, it is necessary to improve the energy efficiency to make it a lower-carbon process. Ag is one of the most valuable materials in the recycling of PV panels. The average amount of Ag in PV panels is reported to be 600 g/t, which greatly affects the economics of the recycling of PV panels [9]. Ag is mainly contained in the cell sheets. In the past, the concentration of Ag in the cell sheet was high enough to recover by a chemical process such as nitric acid dissolution. In recent years, Ag concentration has been decreasing but nitric acid dissolution is still widely used for Ag recovery due to its high recovery ratio of metals including Ag. A long dissolution time and a large amount of acid are required to dissolve the Ag adhering to the resin, which is an obstacle to the nitric acid dissolution method. Mechanical and thermal methods have also been investigated for the separation of Ag [10, 11] before the nitric acid dissolution. A cutter-type mill with sharp blades was able to separate the Cu successfully from the viscous and thick resin but could not separate Ag efficiently. Because the thermal method emits massive amounts of CO2 and requires a large amount of energy, efficient and environmentally friendly technological improvement is required. To achieve higher selectivity and energy efficiency in the separation process, we focus on the electrical pulsed discharge for the separation of electrical conductor. With this method, selective separation could be achieved by controlling the discharge path, voltage, current waveform, and the location where heat and shock waves are generated. Using the electrical circuit of the PV cell as the discharge path, it may be possible to liberate Ag and Cu and to recover them [12, 13]. Previously, we have reported a technology for separating Cu busbars in a single cell sheet by an electrical explosion. However, the previous method required a highpower discharge [14]. In this study, therefore, we focused on the Ag finger wires that are connected to the busbar and arranged in parallel. By placing the electrodes diagonally on the cell, the Ag finger wires could be exploded and recovered with a single discharge because of their connection form [15]. We compared the separation

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characteristics of the mechanical and electrical methods and also investigated the possibility of combining these two methods to construct an optimal Ag separation and recovery process.

25.2 25.2.1

Materials and Methods PV Cell Sheet Sample

A waste crystalline silicon solar cell (Shanghai JA Solar Technology, JAM6(K)60–290/PR, China) was used in this study after removing its aluminum frames and cover glass plates as shown in Fig. 25.1. To remove the cover glass from the cell sheet, a hot-knife method (cutting the EVA layer under the glass layer with a heated knife blade) was employed. Each cell sheet was cut into one cell size of 156 mm × 156 mm pieces and used for the experiments. The elemental composition of the prepared cell sheet sample is shown in Table 25.1. Each sample contained eight Cu busbars (four at the top and four at the bottom) and 102 Ag finger wires contacting with the Cu busbars in a parallel arrangement.

Fig. 25.1 Preparation procedure of the experimental sample and structure of the photovoltaic sheet

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Table 25.1 Composition of the photovoltaic cell sheet

Element Ag Cu Al Si Sn Pb Others Ignition loss

Weight fraction (wt%) 0.26 5.37 2.18 17.89 0.29 0.24 2.25 71.50

Fig. 25.2 Diagonal discharge experiment

25.2.2 Separation Method 25.2.2.1

Electrical Explosion Using Pulsed Discharge

As shown in Fig. 25.2, the electrodes were placed onto the Cu busbars in a diagonal arrangement. The sample was submerged in a water bath. In this experiment, a simple capacitor bank circuit was employed. The circuit consists of a 40 μF capacitor bank, a mechanical switch, a high-voltage DC source, and electrodes. The capacitor was at first charged by the DC source, and then, the energy stored in the capacitor was discharged by switching the circuit with a mechanical switch. The charging voltage of the capacitor was 15 kV. The electrical explosion experiments were performed five times.

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Mechanical Milling Using Cutter Mill

A cutter mill (Vertical Mill, VM-16, Orient Grinding Mill Co., Chiba, Japan) was used in the mechanical milling of PV cell sheets. The shape of the blade is shown in Fig. 25.3. The rotational speed of the cutter mill was set to 1500 rpm. The inner diameter of the screen was 12 mm, and the grinding time was set to 10 min. The feed volume was set to three cell sheets (135 g).

25.2.3

Analysis Methods

After each electrical explosion experiment, the water in the bath was filtered to collect the Ag particles, and then, wet sieving (32, 75, 150, 300, 600, 1180 μm) was performed to collect the particles. After the sieving, the separated particles were dried in a freeze dryer for 6 h. The particle size distribution was determined by weighing each grain group. The elemental composition of the samples was analyzed using an X-ray fluorescence analyzer (EDX-700HS2, SHIMADZU Corporation, Kyoto, Japan).

25.3 25.3.1

Results and Discussion Separation Properties of the Electrical Explosion

Figure 25.4 shows (a) the remaining cell sheet, (b) the separated Cu busbars, and (c) the particles collected by wet sieving after the electrical explosion experiment. The Ag finger wires between the Cu busbars were separated from the front EVA layer by the electrical explosion experiment but the Ag finger wires at both ends

Fig. 25.3 Blade shape of cutter mill

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Fig. 25.4 Appearance of separated materials by electrical pulsed discharge: (a) the remaining cell sheet, (b) the separated Cu busbars, and (c) the particles collected by wet sieving Fig. 25.5 Typical current waveform during the electrical expansion experiment

indicated by the yellow dotted lines in Fig. 25.4a were not separated because the electrical explosion did not happen in this area. Within the area where the electrical discharge happened, most of the silicon layer and the Ag finger wires were scattered by the explosion and separated from the EVA layer as small particles (Fig. 25.4c). Because the Cu busbars were much thicker than the Ag finger wires, the Cu busbars did not explode. Four Cu busbars on the front side were separated while maintaining their original shape. However, the Cu busbars on the backside were not separated from the cell sheet by the explosion. Figure 25.5 shows the typical current waveform during the electrical explosion experiment. The maximum current was 16 kA, and the full width at half maximum of the pulse was 25 μs. The charged energy of the capacitor bank seems to be dissipated at the Ag finger wires within 80 μs. After the switch operation, the current started to flow through the Ag finger wires, and it rose steeply, and then the slope of the current

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Fig. 25.6 Separation mechanism of the electrical explosion method

rise changed after about 10 μs. At this time, as the Ag finger wires exploded, the electrical impedance changed, and the slope of the current changed. The mechanism of the electrical explosion method is shown in Fig. 25.6 [15]. After the mechanical switch was operated, the current started to flow uniformly through the Ag finger wires. Then, the temperature of the Ag finger wires increased due to Joule heating. The heated Ag wires underwent a rapid phase change from solid to liquid and gas (Fig. 25.6b). Because the voltage and current still remained between the electrodes after the phase change, the gaseous Ag wires eventually developed into arc plasmas between the electrodes. The generated plasma became hotter and expanded rapidly in volume by the continuous supply of Joule heat (Fig. 25.6c). The plasma was cooled by the surrounding water and small particles of Ag were generated [16, 17]. In addition, the thermal expansion and shock wave peeled off the EVA layer, and the Cu busbars were also peeled off while keeping

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Fig. 25.7 Particle size distribution of total, Ag, and Cu of separated particles after the electrical explosion experiment

their shape [18, 19]. Particles generated by the explosion were separated and recovered as shown in Fig. 25.4c, but some remained between the EVA layers. The size distribution of the particles collected after the electrical explosion experiment (Fig. 25.4c) is shown in Fig. 25.7. The elemental distribution of Ag and Cu in each particle size fraction is also shown in Fig. 25.7. The distribution of Ag and Cu tended to be different from the total particle distribution. The Ag distribution was finer and Cu distribution was coarser than the total particle distribution. Fine Ag particles were formed by the agglomeration of nanoparticles generated by the electrical explosion of Ag finger wires. On the other hand, larger Cu particles were generated by partially breaking the Cu busbar due to the high temperature of explosion [15]. The distribution ratio chart of each element including the remaining cell sheet (Fig. 25.4a), separated Cu busbars (Fig. 25.4b), and separated particles (Fig. 25.4c) is shown in Fig. 25.8. The area of each element corresponds to the distribution ratio against the whole composition because the vertical and horizontal axis in Fig. 25.8 indicate the weight ratio of each material fraction and the percentage of the elements, respectively. C represents resin such as the EVA and the back sheet. Most of C was in the remaining cell sheet, and a small amount was in the separated particles. Because there was a large amount of Ag in the separated particles, it can be seen that the Ag in the PV sheet was selectively separated by the electric explosion method. The separated Cu busbars contained 91.6 wt% Cu and the separated particles over 1.18 mm contained 78.8 wt% Cu, which are enough for raw materials for Cu pyrometallurgy. The separated particles under 1.18 mm contained 1.5 wt% Ag which is enough for raw materials for Ag hydrometallurgy [20]. However, 63.1% of Ag and 41.6% of Cu remained in the cell sheet. Ag in the remaining cells contained unexploded Ag finger wires as shown in Fig. 25.6c-Front view and Ag particles that were not separated from the cell sheet even though they were exploded. Cu in the remaining cells is Cu busbars on the backside of the cell sheet.

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Fig. 25.8 Distribution ratio chart of each separated material after the electrical pulsed discharge

25.3.2 Separation Properties of Mechanical Milling The PV sample sheet was mechanically milled using the cutter mill. Figure 25.9 shows the appearance of recovered particles of each grain group. The particle size distribution after the mechanical milling is shown in Fig. 25.10. The distribution of Ag particles and Cu particles showed a tendency not significantly different from the distribution of total particles. In other words, there was no selective separation between Ag, Cu, and resin in the mechanical milling method. Ag finger wires were attached to EVA and could not be liberated, so the Ag distribution is almost the same as the total. However, Cu showed a different behavior. Because the mechanical strength of the Cu busbar is greater than that of the other constituent materials of the cell sheet, the Cu busbars were not ground into small particles. The distribution ratio chart of each element in the particles after mechanical milling is shown in Fig. 25.11. Cu was slightly concentrated in the medium particle size group from 0.5 mm to 4.0 mm. However, no noticeable liberation of Ag and Cu

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Fig. 25.9 Appearance of separated materials by mechanical milling of cell sheets without electrical explosion

Fig. 25.10 Particles size distribution of total, Ag, and Cu of particles after mechanical milling of PV cell sheet sample

from C was observed. Consequently, the mechanical milling method had no significant effect on the concentration of Ag and Cu.

25.3.3

Separation Properties of Mechanical Milling After the Electrical Explosion

Because Ag finger wires on both sides of the remaining cell sheet could not be separated by the electrical explosion method, additional mechanical milling was examined. Experimental conditions such as the grinding time of the cutter mill were the same as in Sect. 25.3.2. The particle size distribution of the remaining cell sheet after the cutter milling is shown in Fig. 25.12. Total distribution and Cu distribution were similar to those in Fig. 25.10. However, the distribution of Ag showed a

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Fig. 25.11 Distribution ratio chart of each particles size after the mechanical milling Fig. 25.12 Particle size distribution of total, Ag, and Cu of particles after mechanical milling of the remaining cell sheet after the electrical explosion experiment

significantly different pattern. All Ag was in the particle group of 4 mm or less. This is in contrast to the results of Sect. 25.3.2 where Ag was detected in the whole particle group. The main mechanical force by the cutter milling used in this experiment was the shearing force between the rotating blade and the fixed cutter. The Ag in the cell sheet without electrical explosion was covered with resin (EVA), which prevents the liberation of Ag. On the other hand, after the electrical explosion experiment, the front EVA layer was peeled off as shown in Fig. 25.13 as a result of the shock wave. The Ag separated and accumulated in groups of fine particles (4 mm or less) because Ag exposure to the surface may increase the grinding selectivity. The distribution ratio chart of each element in the particles obtained by the mechanical milling of the remaining cell sheet is shown in Fig. 25.14. Particles in

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Fig. 25.13 State of peeling of the EVA layer after the electrical explosion

Fig. 25.14 Distribution ratio chart of each particle size after the mechanical milling of the remaining cell sheet obtained by the electrical pulsed discharge

the 2.0–4.0 mm range contained 5.27 wt% and 22.7% of Cu which is worth to recovery. Particles under 2.0 mm contained 0.55 wt% of Ag. In the particle group of 4 mm or less, all Ag remaining in the remaining cell sheet was contained at a concentration of 0.34 wt%, but in the case of mechanical milling, only 53.5% of Ag could be recovered at 0.33 wt%. These results strongly indicate that the combination of mechanical milling and electrical explosion enables more efficient recovery of Ag and Cu from PV panels.

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Optimum Process for Ag and Cu Recovery

We investigated the optimal flow scenario for a combination of electrical explosion and mechanical milling. Table 25.2 summarizes the recovery ratios and concentrations of Ag and Cu obtained from each particle group. In this chapter, the recovery of silver by hydrometallurgy and recovery of copper by pyrometallurgy were assumed. Table 25.3 shows the recovery ratio and concentration of Ag and Cu according to the particle group entering each metallurgy. In flow scenario 1 as shown in Table 25.3, the Ag concentration was the highest at 1.50 wt%, but the recovery ratio was the lowest at 36.9%. The recovery ratio of Cu was highest at 92.9 wt%, but the concentration was lowered because of the large amount of resin. On the other hand, if the concentration of silver is emphasized, as in flow scenario 2, (iv) is not sent to hydrometallurgy, and only (iii) and (v) are recovered to obtain a Ag concentration of 1.12 wt% with 82.4% of Ag recovery. These concentration values exceed the 0.32 wt% of the Ag refining standard, which is a sufficient concentration as a raw material for the Ag refinery.

Table 25.2 Recovery and concentration of Ag and Cu after electrical pulsed discharge and mechanical milling Recovery (%) Ag Cu After electrical explosion experiment (i) Separated Cu busbar 0.0 (ii) Separated particles (>1.18 mm) 0.0 (iii) Separated particles (