Design for the Environment ppt

Design for the Environment (1.0) Salustri, Mirceski, Bouma
Tier 2 Method / Teaching Unit 1
Design for the Environment
Version 1.0 (2005-07-10)
Filippo A. Salustri, Ryerson University,
Emilijan Mirceski, Ryerson University,
Christopher Bouma, Ryerson Unversity,
Preface
This module presents main issues surrounding Design for the Environment. Every product must
be dealt in some way at the end of its life. Main approaches (reduction, reuse, remanufacture,
recycling, and disposal) will be discussed. Each method will be explained cost wise and
environment wise. Examples and case studies are included. Sustainable design as a method is
also discussed.
Keywords: design, environment, reduction, reuse, remanufacture, recycling, disposal.
The target audience for this module includes 1
st
and 2
nd
year undergraduate engineering students.
The objective of this module is to introduce the students the following topics:
1. The extent of environmental impact
2. Methods of end of life treatment
3. Design issues for DFE
The context of the module is intended to be easily understandable to 1
st
year undergraduate
engineering students. Internet references are used extensively.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1

Table of Contents 2
1. Background 3
2. Design for the environment 3
2.1. The extent of environmental impact 3
2.2. Methods of end of life treatment 5
2.2.1 Brief description 5
2.2.2 Design for the Environment and Business 5
2.3 Sustainable design 6
2.4 Reduction 7
2.5. Replacement 10
2.6. Reuse 12
2.7. Remanufacturing 12
2.8. Recycling 13
2.9. Disposal 16
2.10 The Environment and You 17
3. Environmental assessment practices 18
3.1 Conclusions 18
3.2 Discussion questions 18
References 20
Appendix A: Stages and Gates 22
Appendix B: Environmental Assessment Checklists 23
Environmental assessment sample: paper versus plastic 27
Manufacturability 27
Equipment 29
In Summary 35
Discussion 35
Background Information 37
References for the Case Study 40
Paper versus Plastic Datasheets 41
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1. Background
All things are part of systems. The systems can be large as the universe or as small as the parts
of an atom, or they can be somewhere in-between (e.g. a car engine). Things in a system tend to
balance always. There can be numerous exchanges between matter and energy with whatever is
beyond a system, but only one net change value: zero.
Consider our planet Earth for example; it is perfectly balanced system. As a system, it had quite
long time to balance and rebalance itself because of the natural laws of physics, chemistry,
thermodynamics, etc. Any change will cause the Earth to react and seek a new point of balance,
even if this means irreparable damage to some part of the Earth system. The ecosphere (that
region of the Earth where life exists) is a part of the Earth system, which may either benefit or
suffer from a change to the Earth. We humans, who are also parts of the Earth system, can cause
changes to which the Earth system will naturally respond in ways that will or will not benefit us,
but in either case, the response is inevitable – we cannot prevent the Earth from responding to
changes we cause. We are now at a point where humanity has the capacity to cause such
significant changes, that the response of the Earth system will make it uninhabitable for humans.
Consider the ozone layer [1] for example. More Chlorofluorocarbons
1
(CFC) in the air means
less ozone.
2
This is both good and bad. It's good because it decreases the amount of ozone
inhaled. It is bad because depleted ozone increases UV radiation reaching the Earth’s surface.
The CFC balance itself is, profit (through the use of CFC-based products) vs. DNA mutations
(through ozone depletion). One may argue that limiting technology (in this case, CFC-based
technology) is good, to prevent increased levels of, say, skin cancer. On the other hand, one may
also argue that development of new technologies will find a way to avert the problems.
The goal of this chapter is to show that there is always a way to engineer products such that the
resulting environmental balance will not negatively impact our living environment. First, let us
examine what our technology can in fact do.

2. Design for the environment
2.1. The extent of environmental impact
In recent centuries, humanity’s ability to create and destroy has increased very much. Leaving
aside destructive uses of the technology, one can say that even projects undertaken with the best
intentions sometimes turn out to be highly destructive. Sometimes this happens because of bad
design; other times, the designer simply cannot foresee what level of impact the project will have
(perhaps due to insufficient data). In all of these circumstances, where projects contribute to the
destructive pool of activities, there is a unwritten rule that it is much easier to just let things
happen, then to try to repair the damage later. Unfortunately, it is rarely possible to bring things
back to their initial conditions. This means that errors accumulate, and balance slowly moves
toward unknown points, until a “disaster” happens.
“A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human,
material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope on its own
resources.” [2]
The following table shows some of the effects that can accumulate in disastrous ways.

1
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are nontoxic, nonflammable chemicals containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and
fluorine. They are used in the manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as
solvents, and as refrigerants. CMDL, .
2
A single chlorine atom can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules. WordWise,
.
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Summary material from GEO-3 1972-2002, “Past and Present” [3]
Land
• There are 2 220 million more mouths to feed in 2002 than there were in 1972.
• Over 10 per cent, between 25 and 30 million hectares, of the world's irrigated lands are
classed as severely degraded because of salinization – a build up of salts. Around 2

billion hectares of soil, equal to 15 per cent of the Earth's land cover or an area bigger
than the United States and Mexico combined is now classed as degraded as a result of
human activities.
Freshwater
• Around half of the world's rivers are seriously depleted and polluted. About 60 per cent
of the world's largest 227 rivers have been fragmented strongly or moderately by dams
and other engineering works.
• Two billion people, around one-third of the world's population, depend on groundwater
supplies. In some countries, such as parts of India, China, West Asia, including the
Arabian Peninsula, the former Soviet Union, and the western United States, groundwater
levels are falling because of various human activities
3
.
• Around 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion to
improved sanitation, mainly in Africa and Asia.
• Water-related disease costs break down like this: Two billion people are at risk from
malaria alone, with 100 million affected at any one time and up to 2 million deaths
annually. There are about 4 billion cases of diarrhoea and 2.2 million deaths a year,
equivalent to 20 jumbo jets crashing everyday.
Forests and Biodiversity
• Forests cover about one third of the Earth's land surface or 3.866 billion hectares. The
Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the Earth’s forested area has shrunk by
2.4 per cent since 1990. The biggest losses have been in Africa where 52.6 million
hectares or 0.7 per cent of its forest cover has vanished in the past decade.
• By the end of 2000, about 2 per cent of forests had been certified for sustainable forest
management under schemes such as those operated by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Most of these are in Canada, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and the United
States. More are scheduled to be certified.
• By 1994, an estimated 37 per cent of the global human population was living within 60
kilometres of the coast. This is more than the number of people alive on the planet in

1950.
4

• Other threats to the oceans include climate change, oil spills, discharges of heavy metals,
persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and litter. Sedimentation, because of coastal
developments, agriculture and deforestation, has become a major global threat to coral
reefs particularly in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South and Southeast Asia.
• Just under a third of the world's fish stocks are now ranked as depleted, overexploited, or

3
Groundwater depletion can result from high water usage in combination with high rates of population growth.
Environment Canada,
4
Question: How does this relates to the global warming and rises in ocean level?
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recovering as a result of over-fishing fuelled by subsidies estimated as high as US$20
billion annually.
Atmosphere
• Depletion of the ozone layer, which protects life from damaging ultra violet light, has
now reached record levels. In September 2000, the ozone hole over Antarctica covered
more than 28 million square kilometres.
5

• Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main gas linked with global warming, currently
stand at 370 parts per million or 30 per cent higher than in 1750. Concentrations of other
greenhouse gases, such as methane and halocarbons, have also risen.
• Asia and the Pacific emitted 2,167 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1998, followed by
Europe at 1,677 million tons; North America, 1,614 million tons; Latin America and the
Caribbean, 365 million tons; Africa, 223 million tons; and West Asia, 187 million tons.

2.2. Methods of end of life treatment
2.2.1 Brief description
As can be seen from the excerpt above, industry had a global impact; there is almost no place on
earth that is not affected by industry. There are various approaches to minimize the impact on the
environment caused by various technological products and processes. These approaches can be
divided into two main groups:
1. Sustainable design considerations
2. End of life considerations (Reduction, Reuse, Remanufacturing, Recycling, and Disposal)
In order to illustrate these approaches, let us consider a “perfect” automobile as an example. If
the automobile were sustainable, it should power itself with solar power (cheap and always
available), there would be no waste, the car itself would be easy to build, affordable, with
minimal resources taken from the environment and little if any operational impact on the
environment.
Since it would run on solar energy, the more efficient the solar cells are, the less need for them,
so there can be reduction is solar panel surface. (Or rather, reductions in raw materials that
must be taken from the environment for solar panel construction). When synthetic wrappings for
seats become damaged, they can be reused as car floor rugs. When the engines get old and not
fully efficient, they can be remanufactured by replacing certain old parts (but not the whole
engine itself) therefore cheaply extending engines life. When the synthetic floor rugs become
unusable, the material itself can be recycled, and used again for seat wrappings. Finally, after 20
years of driving the car, it will become old model, and thus one can dispose it by spraying it with
special chemical, thus the car will dissolve into environment friendly materials.
(Reference [18] gives a directory listing of all the companies that are concerning themselves with
environmental issues.)
2.2.2 Design for the Environment and Business
DFE methods create jobs and are good for economy [4]. Recently, many countries have
demonstrated that, when the economy orients itself toward environmental approaches to stated
problems, job opportunities through recycling tend to increase as much as 20 times more that
through conventional (e.g. land-filling) methods. This emerges from various needs, ranging from
handling the recycling process itself to handling newly produced materials and reengineering

5
As a comparison, Antarctica’s total area is about 14.2 million square kilometers in summer. Gander Academy,

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them. A recent report from Japan [4] predicts that a 10% increase in GDP can be achieved
through recycling instead of waste management, and would result in $600 billion in savings.
2.3 Sustainable design

What is Sustainable Design?

Figure 1: Sustainable design connectivity
Sustainable design closes the loop between product development and the societal and cultural
directives that drive the needs for new products. While the closed-loop nature of the response of
product introduction to society has been implied thought the history of engineering, sustainable
design is the first real effort to codify it as rules that can be directly used to improve design
engineering with respect to those societal needs.
Sustainability is about engineering products that balance two opposing forces. In engineering
and in business, there forces are slightly different, but interrelated.
In engineering, one must balance the benefits of a product to users against the impact of the
product on the environment, during all stages of its life cycle, from manufacturing through to
disposal. In business, the balance is between the sellable value of a product versus the cost of
producing it and selling it and the costs arising from environmental regulation and the negative
impact on corporate image and prestige in the public awareness.
The focus of this module is on the engineering aspects of sustainable design; however, one
cannot completely ignore the business aspects, because engineering happens in a business
context.
Definition of sustainable design
"Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs" - Bruntland commission [5].
Goals of sustainable design (from Hannover Principles [6] and Environmental Protection
Agency [7]):
1. Insist on the rights of humanity and nature to co-exist.
2. Recognize interdependence of nature and humanity.
3. Respect relationships between spirit and matter.
4. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design.
5. Create safe objects of long-term value.
6. Eliminate the concept of waste.
7. Rely on natural energy flows.
8. Understand the limitations of design.
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9. Seek constant improvement by sharing knowledge.
10. Pollution Prevention: Consider a product or service's environmental impact early in the
purchasing decision process.
11. Multiple Attributes: Targeting a single environmental attribute can obscure other
environmental impacts that might cause equal or greater damage.
12. Life-Cycle Perspective: Consider potential environmental impacts at all stages of the
product or service's life cycle, starting with raw materials acquisition, through
manufacturing, packaging, delivery, distribution, use, maintenance, and disposal.
13. Magnitude of Impact: Consider the scale (global vs. local), the permanence of a product
or service's environmental impact, and the degree to which an impact is reversible.
14. Local Conditions: Factor in where and how a product or service is used when evaluating
environmental impact.
15. Competition: Incorporate environmental attributes of products and services in
competition among vendors.
16. Product Attribute Claims: Examine product attribute claims carefully and rely on more
than one information source to evaluate environmental attributes
Sustainable development also involves the simultaneous pursuit of economic prosperity,

environmental quality, and social equity [8]. Companies aiming for sustainability need to
perform not against a single, financial bottom line, but against this “triple bottom line.”
As one can see, sustainable design can have many meanings; but in all of them, there is some
similarity. It is: "The design should try to minimize the resources taken from the environment,
minimize affected areas of activity, minimize waste, and try to totally exclude long-term
environmental impact".
Sustainable design is used in designing solar powered houses; these houses depend on the
conventional power grids only few percents a year. Sustainable design is also used in designing
small electrical generators that can generate electricity from wind and water, for distant
households.
2.4 Reduction
Waste reduction, also called source reduction, is the prevention of waste at the source [9].
Also called pollution prevention, this is more than pollution control: it seeks to eliminate the
causes of pollution, rather than to treat the pollution once it has been created. It involves
continual improvement through design, and through technological, operational, and behavioural
changes. [18]
There are many approaches to waste reduction, the most common of which are:
Increase product durability. Durability is determined by manufacturing but influenced by
consumers (i.e. by refusing to purchase poorly made or non-repairable items). This is typically
the case for products with long lifetimes. For products with shorter lifetimes, increases in
durability generate waste as unsold products (because existent ones are not wearing out).
Reduce the amount of material per product. This relates to all materials, including (and
especially) packaging materials. In the case of the packaging, for example, it was recently
concluded that the packaging accounted for 64 million tons, or 33% of all garbage in the state of
Pennsylvania [16].
Decrease consumption. Avoiding disposable products in favour of reparable or reusable ones.
Manufacture smartly. Decrease manufacturing risk by improving manufacturing practices, and
cost by taking advantage of advancements in materials science and manufacturing technology.
(This means there is always call for new employees with training and experience in the latest
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materials and manufacturing technologies. It might not be as glamorous as working on the “top
floor”, but there is excellent job security.) Also, increase manufacturing speed by improving
product design for fast manufacture and optimizing the production line, and enhance the safety
of the product’s use via “design for safety” and paying particular attention to documentation and
manuals.
The real utility in reduction is in its scalability: small “personal” reductions can lead to dramatic
national improvements. For example, if each person in Canada (population: 31.5 million [10])
could reduce their energy usage by $5/month, Canada would save close to $2 billion. Such an
energy usage reduction may be achieved in many ways, ranging from products that are designed
to conserve electricity in offices (ever wonder why those office towers are lit up so brightly at
night when no one’s there?), to reduction in size of various machines (e.g. smaller cars).
CASE 1: NEOMAX [11]
NEOMAX is very strong iron-boron magnet (an artificial material), which has a higher magnetic
efficiency than most other magnets, therefore contributing to resource and energy reduction. The
need for stronger magnets is constantly increasing as the technology progresses. Consider the
following applications.
• At least 3% improvement in efficiency in automotive engine generators.
• Up to 20% improvement in the electrical efficiency of air conditioners.
• Eliminates the need for liquid helium cooling systems in MRI (Magnetic Resonance
Imaging) machines, greatly reducing system size and therefore price.
The savings become evident when one considers the huge “installed base” of the products noted
above, and the potential for saving human life (with the MRI).


Many approaches to waste reduction focus on educating the “buying public” because if people
preferred to buy products that minimised waste production, then companies would make such
products to respond to market need. For example, in [16], it is recommended that waste
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reduction start at the shopping centre. When one goes shopping, one should follow these
guidelines:
Buy durable products instead of those that are disposable or cheaply made. Example: prefer
“real” photographic cameras to “disposable” ones.
Try to repair/restore used items before replacing them.
Buy items you can re-use. Re-using margarine tubs to freeze foods or pack lunches, for
instance, reduces the need for foil or plastic wrap. Reusing textbooks saves on paper.
Buy items you can recycle locally through curb side collection or recycling centres.
Avoid excess packaging when choosing product brands. Buy products in bulk, but also buy just
what you need; larger sizes reduce the amount of packaging, but smaller sizes reduce leftover
waste.
Standardization in processes also ensures that the most effective, reliable, and environment-
friendly ones will be chosen. An excellent example of this is the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) [19]. This group develops standards for a variety of industry processes;
different standards address different processes. The following examples are based mainly on
ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems, specification with guidance for use) [21].
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CASE 2: Improvements in hospitals after embracing ISO 14001 [20]
St. Mary’s Hospital (Kitchener, Ontario)
• Proper waste segregation has significantly reduced air emissions, particularly those from non-
biomedical materials. The hospital incinerator has been shut down.
• A reduction in biomedical waste of 35% since 1998, despite an 8% increase in day surgeries,
has saved $9,000/yr in disposal costs.
• A new recycling program has increased the amount of recycled waste by 33% and decreased
the amount of waste sent for disposal.
Cambridge Memorial Hospital (Cambridge, Ontario)
• This hospital became the first hospital in North America to receive ISO 14001 certification for
its environmental management system.

• Achieved a 28% reduction in the total volume of waste generated over a seven-year period
(1993-1999).
Norfolk General Hospital (Simcoe, Ontario)
• Energy conservation initiatives include: lighting alternatives, occupancy sensors, use of timers
on hot water pumps, replacement of three boilers and a chiller and cooling tower, have reduced
energy demand and consumption.
• Using 1991 as a baseline, the hospital has sustained energy savings of at least $132,000 per
year, every year, since 1995

CASE 3: Energy Star [22] Conditioning the mass market for environment friendly goals
Energy Star is a partnership of over 7,000 government agencies, businesses, and consumers, to
standardise energy efficient practices for products that consume electricity.
Over the last decade the U.S. public has purchased more than 1 billion Energy Star products and
thousands of buildings have been improved. More than 40% of the U.S. public recognizes the
Energy Star brand.
Last year, thanks to Energy Star, Americans saved the energy required to power 15 million
homes and reduced air pollution by an amount equal to taking 14 million cars off the road.
• 87% strongly agree or agree with the statement “I’m very concerned about the
environment.” [22a]
• 93% strongly agree or agree with the statement “Saving energy helps the environment.”
[22a]
• 67% believe an Energy Star qualified product uses energy more efficiently than a
conventional product. [22a]
• 23% of households knowingly purchased at least one Energy Star qualified product in the
last twelve months. [22b]
• 95% of recent purchasers of an Energy Star qualified product say they are somewhat or
very likely to purchase an item with the Energy Star mark in the future. [22a]

2.5. Replacement
Replacement improves product performance by improving the performance of individual

components in that product. Naturally, to get the biggest improvement, one would target those
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product components that most adversely affect performance. This requites being able to measure
the performance of the components. With respect to sustainability, replacement targets
components that have the most negative impact on sustainability issues. Remanufacturing is
similar to replacement except that replacement does not include reusing the replaced part.
CASE 4: Replacement examples
• Continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) save fuel, since it enables the engine to
operate at an optimum rate via stepless transmission. The energy exchange is more
efficient and less energy is required to move a car. [11]

• Surface chromate treatment of metal products is being replaced with aluminium surface
coating. Chromate has been identified as a health hazard for the human begins [28].
• Lead-free soldering is being used in variety of products, from computer chips and floppy
drives to cell phones and even candles and children’s jewellery, because lead has been
associated with harmful effects on the intellectual and behavioural development of infants
and young children [29].
The business of replacement has been increasing lately. Businesses are recognising there are
significant opportunities arising from refitting buildings that contain materials that have been
found to be harmful (e.g. asbestos insulation).
The drawbacks to replacement as an environmental method are that replaced parts must be either
recycled or disposed of, and new replacement parts must be produced. However, while details
will vary from product to product, it is usually possible to design products so that replacement is
a reasonably cost-effective and environmentally friendly process.
Some other examples of successful application of replacement include the following.
• Replacing lead with bismuth for fishing weights. Lead can have very negative effects on
fish and on animals and humans who eat the fish.
• Replacing plastic with glass whenever possible (e.g. in food containers). With the
exception of certain plastics that are degradable under UV light (if left in open under the

sun they will degrade), most common plastics will not degrade.
• Replacing plastic with paper (shopping bags), whenever possible, because paper is more
easily recycled than plastic. Shopping bags are in most case one-use-only so therefore
they can be replaced with the paper bags for the same purpose, or even with bags that are
designed for more than one use therefore eliminating unnecessary waste in the
environment (prevention at source).
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2.6. Reuse
Reuse as an environmental strategy is the repeated use of an object (design, product…), in such a
way that it can fit the new requirements with minimal or no modifications at all. In other words,
once a product cannot be used for one thing any more, it may be usable for something else that
may be quite different from its original use.
Consider an obvious example: old textbooks. Students reuse textbooks because they cost less
than new ones, but function almost as well as new ones. This lowers the demand for new books
that are environmentally costly to produce. More precisely, if the life span of the product is
longer than the target need (length of the course), and if there is no new revised edition
(obligatory new product), then the product can be used again. The old owner will regain some
resources (money) by selling it to someone who needs it. The new owner will be happy to save
money to meet his or her need.
On a larger scale:
• There is an excellent market for used computers, automobiles, and even airplanes. In
each case, though the product “ages,” it remains functional at a lower investment cost.
• Reuse also applies to parts of products. Some parts of old computers (and automobiles,
and airplanes, etc.). Indeed, old computer parts may end up being used in other
electronic products.
• Companies with old equipment often donate that equipment to universities for use by
students in labs.
• Old eyeglasses and clothes can be collected and distributed in underdeveloped parts of
the world, where they are effectively reused at a fraction of their original cost.

• Object-oriented programming, component-based software development, and data mining
are all ways of developing computer systems that are based on software elements that can
be used repeatedly.
2.7. Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is an industrial process whereby products are restored to like-new condition
[14]. Sometimes, this just means cleaning parts and doing other maintenance tasks. Other times,
it may include literally remachining the parts. Remanufacturing can be a vital part of an
asset/product recovery management plan. Its effective use can benefit a company’s financial
standing, the consumer (lower cost paid), and the environment (mitigated waste production).
Remanufacturing is also smart design solution. Remanufacturing of some products according to
[26] can sometimes cost as little as 10% of the price of the new product.
Design guidelines for remanufacturing include the following.
• Identify the types and amounts of materials needed in a product. Target those parts made
of the easiest and most abundant materials for remanufacturing.
• Identify sources of waste in manufacturing processes. Target parts created by the most
wasteful processes for remanufacturing.
• Choose packaging materials that are easily remanufactured into other useful products.
• Design components to be reused with minimal, cost-effective remanufacturing methods.
• Include both the environmental and financial costs of remanufacturing to calculate the
total product costs during design.
• Balance the cost of product (re)manufacturing and use against the length of its useful life.
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Question 1 [26]: CRT vs. LCD – What would you do?
Consider the two main options for computer monitors: cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and liquid
crystal displays (LCDs). CRTs use two to 10 times more energy than comparably sized LCDs.
CRTs also contain substantial amounts of lead, and they emit radiation, a potential long-term
health concern.
6

Because LCDs do not have these issues, they must be better environmentally
than CRTs, right?
A careful life-cycle assessment points to a different answer. LCDs contain mercury, which is
more toxic than lead and can enter the ecosystem more easily than lead if not handled carefully.
Armed with this knowledge, electrical engineers can attack the issue from one of two fronts.
They can try to dramatically lower the energy consumption of CRTs, or they can try to eliminate
mercury from LCDs.
What would you do?

Among other requirements for creating an environmentally friendly product is to make the
product easy to disassemble for remanufacturing or recycling. This can be done by reducing the
total number of parts in the product – such as by consolidating two or more small plastic parts
into one large part) or lowering the number of fasteners.
Also to facilitate future recycling, different types of materials used in the product should be
limited, and parts should be marked with codes indicating what type of material they are made
of. For example, when using plastics it is generally best to use only one type of plastic [26].

Question 2 [26]: Toxicity vs. Energy requirements?
Another technology for which life-cycle assessment might provide unexpected results is lead-
free solder in electronic products. There is an effort to eliminate lead from electronic products
because of its toxicity. However, if it takes three times the energy to produce a tin-silver-
bismuth solder alloy, what has been gained? Why would we choose lead-free solders?

2.8. Recycling
Recycling involves breaking a product down into its constituent parts and using those parts as if
they were a supply of raw materials for manufacturing new parts. Of all the methods discussed,
recycling is the most expensive, because significantly more manufacturing must be done because
of recycling than because of other methods. However, recycling does not require the acquisition
of new raw materials to be harvested from the Earth. Recycling can have a very positive
environmental impact as a result.

Recycling achieves two goals: (a) preservation of the environment, (b) decrease in use of
resources [12]. It usually applies to the very end of the product life, to salvage raw materials that
can be reused. There are many techniques developed in this area and many more are still being
developed. Most of the examples below are from [13] except where explicitly stated.

6
Studies have shown that with CRT screens the biggest problem is low frequency magnetic field which no filter on
the market can remove it. It generates low current in the teeth filings and the it realizes mercury in the blood stream,
which is known as mercury poisoning.
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CASE 5 [27]: Xerox Corporation
Site recycling programs, including the conversion of solid waste to useable energy through
incineration, saved Xerox over $12 million in 1995.
Xerox implemented a plastic recycling program. High-grade plastic panels from returned Xerox
products are collected, sorted, disassembled, and ground for reprocessing. The plastic is then
used to manufacture Xerox products or is sold to other manufacturers who use plastic. The
program has already diverted 250 tons of plastic from landfill in Monroe County and 1996
estimates project 500 tons diverted with $100,000 in savings to Xerox. It also provides a
valuable service to users who do not know what else to do with spent toner cartridges.

Recycling techniques are classified by the kind of material being recycled: food, fuel, or raw
materials.
Agro-industrial waste can be converted to food. Coconut presscake
7
, peanut presscake, and
some soybean wastes are used to prepare nutritious food in Indonesia. In Taiwan, growing
common mushrooms on composted rice straws has become a multimillion-dollar business.
Mushrooms can also be grown on sawdust, cotton waste, bagasse, shredded paper, and banana
leaves.

Wastes can also be used for animal feed. Different kinds of algae, straws, or crop residues can
be turned into feed with simple chemical treatments.
CASE 6 [27]: The 3M Corporation
In 1990, 3M began a major waste reduction effort. By 3M’s definition, waste is what remains
after raw materials are converted to products and by-products. In 1993, resource recovery
activities in the U.S. recovered and sold almost 199 million pounds of paper, plastics, solvents,
metals, and other by-products.
Since 1989, 3M realized more than $156 million by reclaiming and finding buyers for
manufacturing waste. For example, employees at a 3M plant in Brazil developed a waste
reduction program, sold $150,000 in waste materials, and reduced waste disposal costs by
$90,000.

Waste materials can be used as fuel in various ways depending on composition, density, heating
value, and other properties of the waste. Fuel can be extracted in liquid, gaseous, and solid form.
For example, a ton of wheat straw, heated to 500-600 C can yield about 300kg of char, 38 liters
of tarry liquid and 280 m3 of gas (15, 000 kj/m3).
Raw materials' recycling is widely pursued. Some examples are:
• Old tires can be recycled into a useful component for road asphalt.
• Aluminum waste from manufacturing processes can be recycled into beverage cans.
Glass from bottles can be recycled into new containers and glass pellets to be embedded
in other composite materials. Newspapers and magazines can be turned back into pulp to
make new paper.

7
The first form of pigment created in the manufacturing process, moist and clumpy in consistency.

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• Some companies have even found ways to make carpets and clothing out of old plastic
(Polyester is the most commonly recycled fabric [30]).

Some recycling businesses have built a fortune in the recent years using these techniques, while
also contributing to a safer, cleaner environment.
Recycling can even be carried out for products that might seem indestructible. For example,
batteries of all kinds can be recycled by companies like RBRC [17] who have locations through
Canada and the U.S. They collected nearly 1.6 million kilograms of rechargeable batteries in
Canada and the U.S. in 2002, an increase of almost 12 percent from 2001.
CASE 7 [30]: Recycling plastics.
Overall, about 22 percent of the type of plastic bottle that can be converted into polyester is
recycled; Manufacturers have the capacity to process about 35 percent more than they do now, if
people would properly recycle their bottles. Because polyester is petroleum-based, making
clothing from recycled polyester cuts down on the consumption of important and non-renewable
raw materials. Estimates are that plastics recycling can save about 500,000 barrels of oil a year.
Some examples of recycled clothing:
• Shoes. Used surgical gloves can be mixed with cardboard and hemp to make the upper
part of soles, while old tires can be recycled into soles.
• Fleece jackets. About 25 two-liter plastic pop bottles can be used to make one fleece
pullover. About 15 will produce a fleece vest.
• T-shirts. Pop bottles can be recycled into smoother polyester for use in T-shirts and other
clothes.
How can synthetic fleece be made from pop bottles?
Fleece is made of polyester, a petroleum-based synthetic that can be spun into fibres or moulded
into plastic. The bottles are separated by colour, sterilized and then crushed, chopped, and
melted. The melted plastic is extruded through a showerhead type device, producing fibrous
polyester strands. The strands are stretched to thin out and strengthen them. The strands are
woven into fleece or other materials, such as T- shirts and sweatshirts.

CASE 8 [27]: The IBM Corporation
IBM’s 1995 energy conservation activities saved $15.1 million, reducing electricity use by 226
million kilowatt hours. These savings were achieved through such efforts as energy conservation
in manufacturing processes, installation of a condenser tube cleaning system for refrigeration

machines, and upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, lighting, and chilled water
system controls along with systematic testing and repairs of an extensive steam trap system.
The IBM site in Austin, Texas, produced financial and social benefits by implementing a project
that reuses high-quality rinse water in existing cooling systems. 1995 savings for the city were
$103,000 with a rebate of $30,000 to IBM. 1996 savings to the city are estimated at $179,000.
Recycling for sites in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, produced social benefits by
recycling 1,669 tons of commodities in 1995. This equates to the conservation of 28,373 trees,
4,172 barrels of oil, 6.8 million kilowatts of electricity, 11.6 million gallons of water, or 6,676
cubic yards of landfill space. Another social benefit in 1995 was the avoidance of 17,000 tons of
hazardous waste from production processes.
A new process for manufacturing ceramic substrates replaced methanol with deionised water.
The estimated impact is a savings of $739,000 for every 100,000 pounds of glass frit, a raw
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material used in production, a reduction in methanol emissions of 6,000 pounds, and improved
cycle time of 30%.

2.9. Disposal
If nothing at all can be done with a spent, failed, or obsolete product, it can only be disposed of.
Consider the question: “If the materials and products we are using are originated from the same
materials we are composted of, how some of them can be harmful, other harmless? Why are
some of them considered waste, and others not?” The answer is simple: distribution of
concentration. Elements on this planet had billions of years to balance out, to disperse.
Evolution started on this base. We evolved to thrive in an environment with elements distributed
in certain ways. However, manufacturing changes the distribution of elements on the Earth,
throwing off the balance that we are used to. In the past 200 years, humanity has significantly
changed the balance that nature has taken millions of years to establish.
For example, there has always been enough radioactive material in the Earth to destroy all life on
it. It has until recently been so finely distributed that it has been completely harmless. However,
since the atomic age, humanity has gathered radioactive elements into objects of such high

density, that otherwise harmless elements can be extremely hazardous now.
In order to manage some of the waste of human activities, careful management of its disposal is
essential. Disposal is needed when there is nothing left to do with the waste. Many waste
chemicals in the past 100 years have been dumped into the rivers simply because the common
belief was that they would dissolve and return to their natural state, but many of them did not.
Others did degrade, but destroyed many living things in the process. Why is bottled water sold
in supermarkets, even in highly developed countries? This is a small but telling example of the
impact of continued pollution of the water supply.
It becomes vitally important, then, to find ways to dispose of waste that cannot otherwise be
treated in ways that returns it to as naturally occurring a state as possible.
Some examples include the following.
• Organic waste is often disposed of in composts, where it degrades to primary building
substances.
• Some kinds of plastics are produced to be degradable in ultraviolet light, so when they
are left somewhere (hopefully in the sun) they will degrade into harmless by-products.
However, some predators that feed with a sea jellyfish are dying out because they cannot
distinguish their prey from common plastic bags floating in water.
• Golf balls are being manufactured that simply fall apart after about 40 days, degrading to
soil components rather than remaining intact in “roughs” and possibly choking animals
who eat them.
• Once, incineration was considered a very harmful way of disposing of waste, but with
novel materials designed to break down harmlessly at high temperatures, and new
incineration and air filtering systems, incineration is becoming a highly effective way of
disposing of waste.
Unfortunately, “landfilling” – the dumping of unprocessed waste into landfills – remains a very
popular way of disposing of waste. Little thought is given to the rehabilitation of these landfill
sites once they are full, largely because of the perceived cost with other forms of waste disposal.
However, such perceptions are usually shortsighted because they fail to take into account the
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possible revenues arising from other methods and the long-term environmental damage that can
result.
2.10 The Environment and You
According to the [16], there are many things that can be done by the individual to help the
environment. One thing designers can do is work to design products that support the individual’s
ability to act responsibly. These activities can be thought of user requirements in product
development.
1. Put paper towels out of easy reach so they will be used only when needed. Set up a
countertop or wall holder for sponges, rags, and cloth towels.
2. Buy beverages in returnable or recyclable containers. Most beverages are packaged in
recyclable materials, which include glass, plastic milk and water jugs, plastic soda
bottles, and aluminium.
3. Buy concentrated products to reduce packaging. Examples are concentrated fruit juice,
laundry detergent, fabric softener, and window cleaner.
4. Avoid buying packaged foods with disposable, non-reheatable microwave-able dishes. If
you must buy them, the dishes can be re-used as picnic plates, plant saucers or pet dishes.
5. Carry a canvas or net tote bag when you shop. It is not only a safe, convenient way to
carry purchases, but it eliminates the need for disposable paper or plastic bags.
6. Cancel subscriptions to magazines or newspapers you don't actually read, especially if
you could read them at the local library. Give old issues to friends, co-workers, nursing
homes, laundromats or libraries. Many newspapers and magazines have online versions,
usually available free; read those instead hardcopy versions.
7. Buy products that are durable, well made, and repairable. Check warranties, repair
services, and availability of parts and accessories. Read consumer magazines (your
library probably carries copies) to learn which products are more durable and have longer
warranties.
8. Use carpools or public transit to extend the wear of cars and tires and reduce car
maintenance wastes such as used oil.
9. Reduce toxic waste by purchasing paints, pesticides, and other hazardous materials only
in the quantities needed, or by sharing leftovers.

10. Use plug-in appliances instead of those that operate on batteries. Disposable batteries are
discarded after one use. Rechargeable batteries are the largest source of cadmium (which
is very toxic) in the municipal waste stream.
11. Americans throw away about 2.5 billion disposable razors every year. Use an electric
shaver or a quality razor with replaceable blades.
12. Bar soap generates less packaging waste and is less expensive than liquid soap in plastic
bottles with pump dispensers.
13. Take proper care of shoes and clothing and repair them to extend use.
14. Do not discard usable clothing or household items. Hold a yard sale or donate the items
to charitable organizations. Worn clothing and other textiles can be used as rags or for
craft projects.
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15. List all the things you can recycle through your city's curb side program or your local
recycling centre. Then list the things in your trash that are non-recyclable. Next time
you go shopping, look for recyclable substitutes.
3. Environmental assessment practices
An environmental assessment of a product and how it will be manufactured should be conducted
at every stage, during design reviews. Such assessments must cover energy consumption and
savings, material consumption rates, recycling potential for waste, and reuse and
remanufacturing potential. Such assessments compare the product to targets set at the outset of
the product development process, and that must meet all pertinent regulations, as well as
presenting new business opportunities for the product developers. [31]
With respect to the generic product development process in Figure 2 of the PDP Overview
module, environmental assessments are most important at the first and last of the four product
development gates. (This figure is included in Appendix A of this module for reference
purposes.) However, some assessment should be done at every gate, to ensure that all
environmental aspects of a product’s development are still on target.
Environmental planning done early in the product development process should identify and
propose solutions for any problems connected to the product’s lifecycle. This planning should

also consider broader areas of product influence such as direct/indirect effects, short/long term
effects, etc.
Every product assessment will be different, depending on the pertinent regulations, corporate
intentions of environmental stewardship, technical expertise of the development team, and the
particulars of the product being developed. In such cases, checklists are often useful to help
engineers quickly identify major influences on the environmental performance of a product while
ensuring that the team is not likely to overlook any factors. A detailed sample checklist, and
rules for its application, can be found in Appendix B.
3.1 Conclusions
Design for the environment is a broad concept that requires a planned approach. It varies for
different products. The main concern is on the product’s impact on the environment and human
beings. There are various techniques and approaches of demonstrated feasibility and are still in
use today (recycling, reusing… etc), and better techniques are being created to fit the emerging
technologies. The main point of this module is that products should be always as much
environment friendly as it can, simply because the humanity does not have a spare planet.
3.2 Discussion questions
1. The standard electricity supply in Canada is 110V, but it Europe it is 220V. Assuming the
electricity demand (in W) does not change, which voltage would be “safer”? (Hint: Consider
the current requirements.)
2. Typical public swimming pools are about 25m x 16m x 2m. The water in these pools is
largely cleaned/recycled by on-site treatment equipment instead of just replacing the water
with fresh water for a supply grid. Why is cleaning/recycling preferred in this case?
3. Make a list of as many waste products as you can think of arising from your own high school
classes. For each waste item, think of as many possible uses as you can, keeping in mind the
three strategies of DfE (reuse, remanufacture, recycle).
4. Using the checklist in Appendix B, develop environmental assessments for the following
products: a car, a home computer, an electric blender, a public drinking fountain, a can of
tuna.
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5. Why is the ozone layer disappearing? What effects does UV radiation have on life? How
many different strategies can you think of to restore the ozone layer?
6. What percentage of the waters in the world is polluted?
7. If the Earth is a closed system, then why do people talk about diminishing supply of
resources? Where are the resources going?
8. Plastic shopping bags can be replaced with paper shopping bags to lessen environmental
impact. What can be paper shopping bags be replaced with?
9. Can cars be designed modularly as computers, if one part does not work replace it; make all
the cars compatible with each other. How would modularity impact a car’s life span, cost,
safety, and testing?
10. Give 3 examples where size reduction reduces negative environmental impact.
11. Give 3 examples where size reduction increases negative environmental impact.
12. Explain which product is more environmentally friendly: a conventional computer mouse or
an optical cordless computer mouse?
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References
[1] Google,

[2] United Nations Environment Programme, www.unep.org .
[3] GEO series from the UN Environment Programme,
[4] The Jobs Letter, .
[5] Ontario Association of Architects - Committee on the Environment.

[6] William McDonough.
Environment/hannover.html .
[7] Environmental Protection Agency. .
[8] World Business Council for Sustainable Development.http://194.209.71.99/aboutdfn.htm#ps.
[9] Spokane Solid Waste, .

[10] Statistics Canada, .
[11] Sumitomo Special Metals Co., LTD.,
[12] L. Pawlowski, A.J. Verdier, W.J. Lacy. 1983. Chemistry for protection of the
environment.
[13] National Research Council USA. 1981. Food, Fuel, and Fertilizer from Organic Wastes.
[14] APICS Remanufacturing (REMAN) SIG.
[15] Food and agriculture organization of the UN.
T0515E05.htm
[16] DEP.
[17] Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation. .
[18] Ontario Waste Material Exchange. www.owe.org .
[19] International Organization for Standardization. .
[20] Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention. .
[21] ISO. .
[22] Energy Star. .
[22a] Energy Conservation and Efficiency study 9589, Final Report May 2002. Schulman,
Ronca and Bucavalas, Inc. and Research into Action (May 2002).
[22b] National Analysis of CEE 2001 Energy Star Household Surveys, The Cadmus Group and
Xenergy Consulting, Inc. , August 1, 2002.
[23] Microsoft.
[24] Microsoft. />us/cpref/html/frlrfsystemconvertclasstobase64stringtopic.asp
[25]
[26] Assembly magazine.
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[27] Transformation Strategies. .
[28] SERDP.
[29] eCMAJ.
cmaj_today/2001/01_08.htm .
[30] JOBWERX. .

[31] Olympus. />23.pdf
[32] S. Pugh. 1991. Total design: integrated methods for successful product engineering.
Addison-Wesley, England.
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Appendix A: Stages and Gates
Scoping Business Case Development Test/Validate Launch
Gate Gate Gate Gate
Project
Management
Manufacturing
Design
Marketing
Other functions
User/client requirements
Ideation
P roduct Concept Design
Systems Design
Detailed Design
Market & technology study
Plan product opt ions/family
Refine options/family
Develop marketing plan, laun ch matls
P lace product wit h key client s
Analyse client &
user feedback
Evaluate design effectiveness
Assess mfg feasibility & t ech
Estimate production costs & manufacturability
Make/buy, identify suppliers

Develop m fg/assy scheme & plant, quality assurance & procurement
Refine production system to st eady state
Economic analyses; patents; IP
Identify maintainability issues; develop service plan
Advertising/promotion plan & devel
Create/maintain schedule, overs ee HR and admin functions, maintain budget, track progress,
ensure accuracy, manage workflow and information flow
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Appendix B: Environmental Assessment Checklists
The following checklist has been developed by the authors to help students estimate qualitatively
the degree of environmental “friendliness” of a product. The checklist is based on another, well-
established design analysis tool, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) [32]. FMEA is used
to assess the risk of failure of products; we have adapted the approach here to assess the risk of
environmental damage.
To assess the environmental impact of a product, we need to consider its entire lifecycle from
design through to end of life, so there will be entries in our checklist for each lifecycle stage.
The stages themselves are, however, too general to allow a sufficiently detailed assessment. So
we will break down each lifecycle stage into a number of factors. A list of factors is given in the
leftmost column of the checklist.
Consider an obvious factor such as the ability to recycle (or reduce or reuse or remanufacture)
the materials in the product itself (for brevity we simply refer to this as recyclability). Each
factor has a direct impact and an indirect impact that can be positive (environmentally beneficial)
or negative (environmentally harmful).
The direct impact is the immediate environmental effect, positive or negative, of the factor. The
recyclability of a product impacts the environment directly and positively – the better the
recyclability, the greater the environmental benefit.
The indirect impact of the factor arises from the consequences of the factor being considered.
E.g. new products that will be made in the future out of the recycled parts of the current product
will not require new materials that would otherwise have to be extracted from the Earth and

processed at significant environmental cost. This means that recycling can have a substantial
positive indirect impact too.
Negative impacts of recyclability are those that cause more environmental damage than if
recycling had not been done. For example, it might involve the generation of environmentally
damaging waste and the consumption of energy from the recycling processes themselves; this
negative direct impact does not exist when “new” materials are used.
For each DFE factor, we would like to assign a value, so that we can use simple arithmetic to
“add up” the impacts arising from all the factors and arrive at a general assessment value for the
product. It makes sense to use positive values to indicate positive impacts, and negative values
to indicate negative impacts.
Obviously, the assessment will be qualitative (i.e. we cannot calculate environmental impact in
the same strictly mathematical way that we can calculate, say, forces). Still, it has been shown
that qualitative assessments can come very close the “actual” value – and an approximate value
is good enough for most situations.
Still, every impact regardless of the DFE factor involved will have certain common
characteristics. We can use these characteristics to help work out a simple way to think through
the impact values. There are three characteristics we want to consider.
Severity. Some DFE factors will have only a slight impact on environmental quality of a
product; other factors will have a very significant impact. Severity is how we measure the raw
amount of impact. We measure severity on a 7 point scale defined as follows:
-3: Extremely negative impact; catastrophic environmental impact; significant loss of life and
property.
-2: Significant negative impact; severe but not catastrophic environmental impact; significant
injury and loss to societal infrastructure.
-1: Marginal negative impact; minor harmful environmental impact.
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0: Neutral or no impact (i.e. neither harmful nor beneficial effect); harmful effects that cancel out
beneficial effects.
+1: Marginal positive impact; minor benefits to the environment.

+2: Positive impact; benefits outweigh harmful aspects; environmentally beneficial; noticeable
improvement to quality of life or societal infrastructure.
+3: Extremely positive impact; very significant benefits to the environment, quality of life, or
societal infrastructure.
Likelihood. Some factors are more likely to happen than others depending on issues like cost,
governmental regulations, and technological feasibility. Likelihood is a qualitative measure of
how likely we expect the impact to be. We measure likelihood on a 3 point scale:
1: Highly unlikely to occur within the lifecycle (not lifetime) of the product.
2: Somewhat likely to happen within the lifecycle of the product.
3: Extremely likely to occur within the lifecycle of the product.
Duration. Each impact will affect the environment for some length of time. Duration is a
relative measure of the duration of the impact, estimated with respect to the lifetime of the
product itself. For example, the lifetime of a disposable pen might be a few years; so a long-term
impact would be measured in years and a short-term impact would be measured in weeks or
months. However, the lifetime of a nuclear power plant is measured in decades, so a short-term
impact would be measured in months or years, and a long-term impact would be measured in
decades or centuries. Duration is also measured on a 3 point scale:
1: Short-term with respect to the product’s lifecycle; an effect that will become negligible long
before the product’s lifecycle is over.
2: Medium duration; an effect that will become negligible roughly within the product’s lifecycle.
3: Long-term; an effect that will significantly outlast the product’s lifecycle.
Armed with these qualitatively measurable characteristics, we can calculate a value for any direct
or indirect impact by multiplying the values of the three characteristics together. For example,
consider the recycling of metal paperclips.
Severity = +1 because the metal in the paperclip is already processed (no mining and ore
processing required), and the metals used in paperclips are common and thus very useful.
However, paperclips are relatively small and a great many paperclips will have to be gathered up
(which could be quite difficult if you think about it) to justify recycling them.
Likelihood = 3 because recycling technologies for the kinds of common metals used in
paperclips is well understood and easy to implement

Duration = 3 because the recycled metal can be used for a very long time – longer than the
expected lifecycle of a paperclip.
Thus the total direct impact of recycling paperclips in the Disposal lifecycle stage is 1*3*3 = 9.
Note that if the severity had been negative, then the total impact would have been negative too.
The DFE checklist is best worked out in a team setting: every team member should agree to the
values chosen to represent the impacts of the product’s DFE factors. For each factor, envision
how it might occur in “real life”. For example, when considering the Sales factor under the
Distribution lifecycle stage, think of the entire processes of selling the product (e.g. a stapler)
and all the elements needed to achieve it (e.g. shelf space in a climate-controlled setting). Then
think of the environmental impact of those elements.
Also, one must remember that the checklist is a template, and not the best for every situation.
There are some products for which some of the DFE factors simply do not apply; those factors
can be removed. There are other products for which extra DFE factors are missing; such factors
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should be added to the list under the appropriate lifecycle stage. It is up to the design team to
validate the checklist and make sure it includes all and only the factors that impact the product
being designed.
The DFE checklist can be constructed easily using a simple table or spreadsheet. There are five
main columns in the checklist. They are explained below.
DFE Factor. Each factor, as defined above, is derived from a stage of a product’s lifecycle.
Some of the factors are broken into subfactors.
Direct Impact. The direct impact of a DFE factor is a measure of the environmental harm or
benefit coming as a direct result of how the factor is addressed in a particular product. Its value
is the product of severity, likelihood, and duration characteristics as described above.
Indirect Impact. The indirect impact arise from the implications that particular factors have to
downstream, future, or otherwise distant events, people, or locations from the actual treatment of
the factor. Its value is the product of severity, likelihood, and duration characteristics as
described above.
Total. This is just the sum of the direct and indirect impacts. The grand total of all the impacts

is given in the last row.
Percent. This column shows the combined direct and indirect impact as a percentage of the total
impact from the last row of the total column.