Product End-of-Life Management

Basics

• The management of a product's "End-of-Life"
• Essentially what to do when it is no longer Reusable

Workflow

Flowchart

• Link to it

Direct Recycling

• Direct to relevant Recycling Workflow (Can be done if it is a single material (ie a metal canister) )

Disassembly Required

• Disassemble
• Useable Component Recovery
• Direct Recycling of Relevant Parts

Upcycling

• Creative Reuse
• Upcycling

Destructive Recycling

Biological

• Anaerobic Digestion
• Composting
• Landfarming

RDF

• Gasification / Pyrolysis of the remaining RDF at the end of the other above processes
  • This is then used to create new products/materials that are reclaimed from the above system
    • Clinkers / Slag can be utilized as Concrete Aggregate
    • Ash / Bottom Ash / Fly Ash can all be utilized as chemicals in cleaning/industry or in Cement mixes
    • Also, if done with pure Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer , the resulting slag should be near pure glass, and thus may be able to be reused quite easily
      • See: Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer Recycling and Glass Recycling

Internal Links

• Product Lifetime
• Life-Cycle Assessment

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Product End-of-Life
• The Wikipedia Page on Sustainable Materials Management (a related design philosophy)