Recycling process planning for the End-of-Life management of waste from electrical and electronic equipment

The ever-increasing amount of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has become a common problem due to the significant environmental and health impacts associated with inappropriate End-of-Life (EoL) management. The current ad hoc applications of WEEE recycling are often based on limited knowledge and cannot cope with the complex range of materials and products in such waste. A knowledge-based approach has been utilised to investigate the realisation of a recycling process planner which aims to determine the most suitable EoL options for WEEE. A number of case studies have been used to show that a 20–30% improvement on economical and environmental performance could be achieved through adoption of such a systematic approach to recycling process planning.