Who's responsible for 'techno junk'?

Millions of electrical items such as computers, printers, TVs and mobile phones are upgraded by consumers every year, leaving a fast growing mountain of 'techno junk'.

With about 900,000 tonnes of electronic waste sent to landfill sites in the UK each year, the European Union (EU) is set to introduce two laws to reduce this problem as part of the EU directive on Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

First, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive will target electronic gadgets and goods before they go on sale, cutting down six toxic chemicals in favour of safer alternatives. Hazardous items from waste, such as batteries and liquid crystal displays, will be taken out because they cause pollution via leachates.

The second law tackles products at the end of their lives. Under the WEEE directive, the company that made or imported an electrical item will have to pay to recycle it safely, or arrange for it to be re-used. This means that the race is on for scientists and manufacturers to design a whole range of greener gadgets for a cleaner world.

Rob Holdway is the director of environmental management consultancy Giraffe Innovation, based in Brighton, England, and is also a consultant on the new laws. He said: "Dumping old electronic equipment is a real waste of our resources, and could also be dangerous because our gadgets can contain all sorts of toxic chemicals. The new laws mean that whoever makes your TV or microwave has to pay to ensure that it won't get dumped dangerously."

One of the major hurdles preventing more widespread recycling and re-use of electronic products is that they are time-consuming, and therefore expensive, to take apart. This problem is being addressed by research scientist Habib Hussein of company Active Fasteners at Brunel University's Runnymede Campus, Surrey.

Hussein is engineering materials to create electronic products that will take themselves apart for easy recycling. The process is known as 'automatic disassembly', a revolutionary technique for creating self-dismantling products that have reached the end of their lives.

He has designed a new kind of fastener that can hold a mobile phone firmly together, until the owner wants it to let go. These fasteners are made with 'smart' materials - metals and plastics that change shape when triggered, allowing the phone to dismantle itself for recycling.

"Active disassembly components are more expensive than traditional fastenings, so there needs to be a cost benefit somewhere within the product life cycle for manufacturers to use them," said Habib Hussein. "We are working to make active fasteners with cheaper, more easily available materials."

Despite the fact that mobile phones are designed to last around 10 years, consumers in the UK only keep theirs for an average of 18 months. Almost unbelievably, 1712 new mobile phones are bought every hour.

Tim Cooper at Sheffield Hallam University is conducting research to try to find out why consumers have no loyalty to their phones. He said: "You can make products that won't break for years but that doesn't mean we will want to keep them for so long. If we want to design things that will really last for a long time, we need to understand exactly why we get fed up with them."

Cooper has asked product designers and manufacturers to team up with social scientists who understand why we choose to throw things away. Together they plan to design better products that consumers will want to keep for longer.

"Certainly if phones felt stylish and beautiful, like jewellery, rather than merely fashionable, we might be more likely to keep them for longer," said Cooper. Meanwhile, green product designer Dr Kerry Kirwan, from the Warwick Manufacturing Group, English Midlands, has invented a mobile phone cover containing a seed that will biodegrade and grow into a sunflower.

Working with Gloucestershire-based plastics manufacturer PVAXX Research, Dr Kirwan has created the phone covers from a mixture of plastics and minerals. When thrown away, they break down into natural materials and therefore do not harm the environment. He said: "Our idea was that incorporating a seed gives people a reason to separate the plastic parts, saving recyclers money, time and effort."

If the phone cover is planted, the biodegrading plastic releases the sunflower seed from its casing and provides it with nutrients to help it grow. Micro-organisms in the soil get to work on the plastics straight away. Within two weeks the seed has started to sprout and the plastic should all be gone within a month.

"The great thing about this plastic is that it doesn't biodegrade in a normal working environment - it has to have very special conditions to start the process," explained Dr Kirwan. "This means that you can use it in everyday life but the minute you pop it in the ground it begins to break down."

Mobile manufacturers are also looking at tackling the problem of creating greener gadgets. Scientists at global Japanese technology group NEC have developed the world's first mobile for sale with a biodegradable cover.

The cover is made out of plant materials from corn and kenaf (a relative of the cotton and hibiscus plants). During the process, corn is turned into a bio-plastic and kenaf fibres are added to make the plastic stronger, tougher and more heat resistant. This means the cover will not start to break down during its everyday use, only when it is buried. NEC's new phone is currently only available in Japan but there are plans to sell it in Europe soon.

Scientists hope to use plant-based plastics more often in future products such as in cars and even kitchen utensils. Ideas such as these recently formed part of an exhibition called Wired Waste, at the Science Museum's Dana Centre in London.

Other interesting concepts at the exhibition included lithium sulfide batteries that break down on the compost heap when dead; and a circuit board made from soya beans and chicken feathers, and another from lasagne.

The Welding Institute, headquartered in Cambridge, is responsible for the world's first lasagne, sheet circuit board. The institute is now researching another biodegradable circuit board made of chitin, a starch-based compound found in shellfish.