Conjugating Electronics and Sustainability:
a key challenge for Europe
Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) are critical for today’s economy. They are found in nearly all electronic devices, as they provide the physical support for electronic components to connect together. Despite constant efforts to improve their performance in recent years, the waste linked to PCB manufacturing and use has not been tackled consequently.
On the application, the share of PCB inside the Environmental Footprint of an electronic board ranges from 5 to 20% which is definitively not neglectable.
Moreover, their production depends on the availability of minerals and metals, which are essential raw materials for the electronic industry, therefore making Europe dependent on international markets and cooperation.
A highly polluting sector
- 800Kt PCB are fabricated each year, equal to about 6 Mt of CO2 which corresponds to the annual CO2 footprint of 1.250.000 persons.
- 70% of traditional PCBs are made of non-renewable materials, currently not recycled efficiently
- PCB waste is about 3Mt, which corresponds to 3-6% of the total weight of Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
- By 2030, 0.6 to 1.2 Mt of critical materials (CM) could be recovered from the PCBs
With over €1 trillion worth of the world consumer electronics market, around 20kg of electronic products per person are put on the market each year in Europe! The current life cycle of these components entails a critical impact on ecology as well as economic losses.
Indeed, the impact of the electronics sector on the extraction of natural resources has grown exponentially, accompanied by an expanding WEEE stream – reaching 74 million tons (Mt) by 2030 with an annual growth rate of 3-5% – and GreenHouse Gases (GHG) emissions. WEEE contains prematurely discarded components and raw materials worth nearly €53 billion! [1]
Furthermore, the mining of minerals (like Cu) for electronic manufacturing becomes more costly and longer due to the decrease in percentages of exploitable minerals in extracted raw material.
It should be added that the European electronics Value Chain (VC) faces significant risks: price volatility in the extractive sector, frequent shortages in the production chain such as micro-controller, market deglobalization, mineral-rich countries protectionism, lack of cooperation between exporting and importing countries…
Demand for these materials and therefore European dependence on these would be significantly reduced by adopting circular approaches, including eco-design, recycling, refurbishment, and reuse, and tapping into secondary sources such as industrial residues and waste.
Where does Europe stand in all this?
The market share of European PCB production in the global PCB manufacturing market has gradually decreased to less than 2% in the last decade. However, data on real PCB production in Europe are often conflicting because some companies also include the share of PCB purchased in the Far-East (trading).
With inflation, wars, and geopolitical conflicts, the European energy crisis continuing, this will lead to a further decline in the economy. Weak demand, high inventories, and oversupply capacities will continue to impact the global and EU economy, making it even more important for Europe to limit its dependency and bring new solutions to the market. In this situation, the EU took a strong stand in the last couple of years, which concretized with the Chips Act and the will to create a sovereign European ecosystem for semiconductors.
To respond to sustainability challenges and position itself as a leader of change, Europe engaged in dynamic approaches, notably through the EU Green Deal which strives to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent. Europe is furthermore favouring research in sustainable electronics and implementing various eco-friendly regulation frameworks and policies tackling electronic waste, pollution, and overconsumption. In the past ten years, the number of funded projects oriented towards finding solutions against resource depletion, GHG, or PFAS has significantly risen.
Discover how the EU works on sustainability
The European Union (EU) has been a global leader in promoting sustainability across various sectors, including electronics. Its policies, regulations, and initiatives in this area focus on reducing environmental impact, encouraging resource efficiency, and driving the transition to a circular economy. We can for instance quote several approaches initiated by the EU:
– The Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, passed in 2012, focuses on reducing electronic waste by promoting recycling, reusing, and recovering valuable materials from discarded electronics. It imposes collection and recycling targets on manufacturers and encourages extended producer responsibility (EPR). Under EPR, producers are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products, including take-back, recycling, and disposal.
– The Circular Economy Action Plan, adopted in 2020, is central to the EU’s efforts to reduce waste, increase recycling, and make products more sustainable. This plan targets the entire lifecycle of products, with a particular focus on electronics due to their short lifespans and significant environmental impact.
– The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, acted in July 2024 as part of the Circular Economy Action Plan and replacing the Eco-Design Directive from 2009, aims at more circularity in the design and use of products, together with better energy performances and sustainability overall. This framework paves the way for efficient regulations, starting with implementing EU standard requirements for the products entering the EU market. In June 2024, another directive came as a complement to the ESPR, the directive on Repair of Goods.
[1] WEEE Recycling – Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment | Climate Technology Centre & Network (ctc-n.org)
