Functional Diversity Management to Generate Sustainability: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Prevent Tipping Points [S-15]

When devices such as computers, smart phones and batteries are sent for recycling, not all the materials are captured for use in new devices. Specialist coatings are often made with rare and expensive materials to enable our modern electronics to work. However, these coatings can cause problems when it comes to recycling and the materials are not always recovered but incinerated to produce ‘heat from waste’. This means that the expensive, highly engineered coating has been lost and its value not realised.” “adhesives often make our phones water tight and ensure longer lifetimes of electronic products, however when it comes to recycling these products the adhesives make it difficult to take the products apart, wavelength sensitive adhesives would make this more straightforward.

We may have finally reached a tipping point when it comes to action on climate change. 1 Energy companies, manufacturing companies, and governments around the world are setting realistic goals and, more importantly, taking real action.  Today’s blog is about how climate action relates to supply chain management. Almost every company these days has a sustainability page on their website. Some use the term circularity. You can think of circularity as a subset of sustainability.