Sustainability assessment of various circular economy scenarios in the consumer electronics sector

Fast-paced technological improvements and consumer eagerness towards additional functionalities and features are pushing an overconsumption of consumer electronics. This implies environmental sustainability issues, such as suboptimal material recovery and pollution risk, as well as the under-exploitation of economic opportunities linked to the residual value of the throwaway products. This work describes a methodology for assessing the overall sustainability improvements of Circular Economy (CE) practices in consumer electronics sector, supporting the identification of the most promising solutions and application contexts as well as underlining some critical success factors. Screening Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on differential approach is applied to evaluate and compare various circular economy scenarios based on product life extension. Costs and revenues, estimated holding into account current consumers' behavior and its evolution, are also provided to assess the economic viability of these new business models. The proposed approach, illustrated through the case of mobile phones re-use, is developed in order to foster its straightforward application to a wide range of industrial scenario.