Improving recyclability by design: a case study of fibre optic cable

The results of LCA and life cycle costing obtained by using CHAMP show that cable re-design can reduce the environmental impacts by between 30 and 60% and can lead to a 40% reduction in economic costs. This is achieved by changing the internal structure of the cable, by removing some of the cable components (e.g. aluminium and organic gels) and by recycling some of the materials. Transport (including reverse logistics), processing and landfill also contribute to the overall impacts, but their contribution is less significant than that from the materials used to manufacture the cable.