An industrial ecology teaching exercise on cycling e-waste

We describe an Industrial Ecology teaching exercise on the recycling of discarded consumer electronics (“e-waste”), using a computer as an example. In the exercise students, working in groups, disassemble a used computer into component parts. The parts are classified and inventoried in terms of mass. Then, using available information on the prices of materials that can be readily recycled, an economic assessment of the recycled computer is made. We provide a sample data set from the lab for a computer hard-drive that was disassembled into 12 categories of components with a recycling value of 2.58$ US. The students enjoy the hands-on experience of disassembly as an exercise in “creative destruction” and they are encouraged to discuss ways that computers might be better designed for disassembly and recycling based on their experience in the lab. An energy circuit diagram of material cycling in consumer electronics is presented to provide a systems context for the overall teaching exercise.