Towards a taxonomy of resource recovery from end-of-life products

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly facing pressures, from many sources, to take back and recover their end-of-life (EOL) products. These pressures reflect social values and are likely to become more widespread. Manufacturing companies, however, are not in the business of recovery and if they are to meet these increasing pressures and legal obligations they must acquire an understanding of the associated issues and decisions that they face. A taxonomy of resource recovery would provide a framework for such an understanding, and decision support. The utility of a taxonomy is multiple: it facilitates an understanding of EOL product recovery; it assists in communication; and it can highlight problems. A taxonomy facilitates understanding and communication of the essential features of a type and supports scientific and technological analysis and problem resolution. The author has developed, and been involved in the development of a number of taxonomies of resource recovery, these are presented in this paper. A taxonomy of electronic and electrical manufacturing situations from a resource recovery perspective is also described. This is a taxonomy of manufacturing situations from a recovery perspective, and focuses on the electronics industry, which is facing legislation mandating take-back and recovery.