Engineering Environmentally-Benign Electronics

Featuring Oladele Ogunseitan, Ph.D.
Professor, Program in Public Health
College of Health Sciences, UC Irvine

Location:  Engineering Hall 2430 Colloquia Room
Free and open to the public

Abstract:
Sustainable strategies to reduce the public and environmental burden of hazardous materials associated with discarded electronic products will require coordination of efforts ranging from selective use of materials in product design, consumer behavior toward recycling, to trans-boundary regulatory incentives.  Our project adopted the cellular phone as a model for addressing the knowledge gaps and policy discrepancies that contribute to continuing risks associated with electronic waste.  This presentation reviews progress and emerging solutions according to five specific objectives:  (a) Development of an integrative environmental burden model (EBD) for chemicals associated with the designation of these products as post-consumer hazardous waste. (b) Identification of alternative materials to replace hazardous constituents according to the EBD and current policies. (c) Estimation of the cost and performance differentials between the alternative materials and current CE constituents. (d) Survey of consumer willingness to participate in electronic waste management practices (e) Comparative assessment of regulatory policy designs.