Product Design for the Environment Solid wastes do not magically disappear. Moving and storing our mountains of wastes are both big business and a major public policy headache. Rather than focusing primarily on strategies for efficient disposal of solid waste, we should direct our attention towards product design to enable effective recycling. It is the only sensible long-term waste control strategy. How much of our household refrigerators or our business computers consists of recycled material? Right now, virtually none. Are these goods fated to join our landfill mountains? Are all replacements to be made from only new materials? How much of these durable goods could he recycled when their economic life is over? A sizable fraction could be, although the owner disposing of these goods probably has little control over the proportion of such recycling. Although economics and environmental regulation play a role in what fraction is recycled, decisions made during the initial design and manufacture of these goods can he crucial. For example, have plastic components been labeled so that they can be sorted for eventual recycling? Has insulation been attached in ways to make disassembly practical? Have new computers incorporated material retrieved from old machines? All of these questions are settled during the process of product design. We must foster a new environmental mindset for industrial designers and their employers. Product reuse, recyclability, and safe disposal should be explicitly considered. New products should incorporate recycled materials whenever possible. Designing for disassembly and selecting materials that can he reused deserve attention. Just labeling material components and restricting the numbers of different materials used in any one product can substantially reduce recycling costs. Faced with stringent emission controls, our process industries discovered some years ago that effective waste control must he designed into the entire plant. In the 199Os, we must introduce similar concepts into the product industries and into the minds of engineers and scientists who design, manufacture, and use products. Public bodies also need to rethink their strategies, because there is no equivalent to the emission regulations placed on process industries to provide incentives to manufacturers for recycling. a44
Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 26.
NO.
5 . 1992
In an ideal world, products that are easier to recycle and reuse would carry a premium value. However, there is a substantial ownership and responsibility gap between the manufacturer and the individual or group ultimately hearing the costs of disposal. Automobiles are likely to pass through many hands, with the owners possessing increasingly limited means as the automobile becomes older. If the scrap value of an automobile is too low, then the last owner will often abandon the hulk along a roadway or in a stream. Consumer products are happily passed on to municipalities for ultimate disposal without any incremental fee, irrespective of their initial purchase price. Although there are numerous incentives for environmentally conscious public relations efforts in response to the "green revolution," the economic incentives for manufacturers to design environmentally sound products are often weak. EPA's Agenda for Solid Waste acknowledges the importance of waste minimization. However, most public attention and research effort are directed at recycling restrictions on the final user of products or on the waste disposal industry itself. With the reauthorization of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Congress has an opportunity to focus on waste minimization through product design. At a minimum, provisions in the new act should encourage demonstrations and technology transfer for environmentally conscious product design. Chris Hendrickson is educafion direcfor of the N S F Engineering Design Research Cenfer and associote deon of the engineering school o f Carnegie Mellon Universify, Pittsburgh. PA
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Frnncis C. iWciWichnel is director of f h e Cenfer for Solid M'nsfe MannRemenf Reseorch a n d Blenko Professor o f Environginerring 0 ; Corne&? Mellon
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0013-936x19210926-844803.0010 @ 1992 American Chemical Society
