Caught between ecology and economy: End-of-life aspects of environmentally conscious manufacturing

Realizing what is actually discussed as Sustainable Development, among others leads to the need of dematerializing our industrial economy. Here, one approach is to set up cyclical systems, connecting production, logistic and recycling processes in an environmentally sound manner. This paper shows some of the latest results of the Fraunhofer IML's applied-research activities in this field with special regard to reverse logistics, disassembly and recycling. Thus, it gives an idea of some of the important aspects currently under discussion in the industry when setting up economically viable end-of-life solutions. Starting with a short overview on the legal situation and the responsibility of the producers for end-of-life products, this paper comes up with a new approach for systematically analyzing and modeling end-of-life networks. The last part discusses some real-life recycling networks using the Deutsche Telekom and AGR/Electrocycling, one of the biggest recyclers for electrical and electronic equipment in Germany, as well as the recycling of refrigerators as examples and shows ways of improving the existing and new systems from both an ecological and economical point of view.