Circular by Design (CbD)

How is it researched?

The study examined how the product design of refrigerators influences resource consumption and recyclability. In-house dismantling studies and a large-scale recycling trial showed that steel and plastics can be recovered largely by type. The situation is different for materials such as aluminum, copper, and cables - they often end up in the wrong collection group and contaminate it. The main reason for this is a design that makes recycling difficult: for example, permanently installed electronics that cannot be removed before the recycling process, adhesives, or protective coatings. As a result, valuable raw materials cannot be cleanly separated from each other and recycled (Figure 1). The reasons for this include components getting stuck during shredding, unwanted residual compounds, and low sorting efficiency. This results in poor-quality recyclates - a phenomenon known as “downcycling.” Based on these findings, a fridge-freezer combination was developed that is much better suited to the requirements of the circular economy. The “7circle-18” concept (Figure 2) is based, among other things, on a modular design: standardized individual parts are connected via plug connections instead of adhesive, making them easier to disassemble, repair, or replace. At the end of its service life, the technical module with electronics, circuit boards, display, and cables, for example, can be easily removed as a whole. This makes it easy to separate the materials by type, and components and raw materials can be recovered in high quality and reused in products of the same grade.