2005 Volume 46 Issue 12 Pages 2561-2566
In order to verify the effectiveness of the “Ecological Rucksack” as an indicator on resource utilization for electrical and electronic equipments, the Ecological Rucksack of 36-inch high-definition TVs produced in 1993 and 2003 has been estimated in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute in Germany. The Ecological Rucksack (abiotic material) of the 1993 product was 19 tons (product mass 91.0 kg) and that of the 2003 product was 7.7 tons (product mass 79.5 kg), therefore, an approximate 11 tons or 60% reduction. The breakdown of the Ecological Rucksack (abiotic material) of the 1993 product indicated that the values associated with the print circuit board mounted inc. electronic components (hereafter called PC board) represented approximately 50% of the total, followed by power consumption during use at 40%. The PC board represented less than 10% of the product mass but occupied approx 50% of the Ecological Rucksack (abiotic material). The smaller and lighter PC boards employed in the later product substantially contributed to the reduction of Ecological Rucksack. As evident in the example of the PC board, the consideration of Ecological Rucksack reveals the hidden material flow and presents a new approach to resource utilization.
However as for the materials used over the life cycle of a high-definition TV set, the factors obtainable from the MI factors table represented only 25% of the product mass. By applying the MI factors of materials with equivalent properties, the rate of MI factors increased to 99% of the product mass, thereby enabling an estimation of the Ecological Rucksack for a TV set. The estimation made this time around underlined the fact that further examination of the data was required for the PC board, because it would strongly affect the evaluation results for determining the Ecological Rucksack of a high-definition TV set. Further enhancement of the database is therefore required for enabling applications to electric and electronic equipment.
