Recy-ctronics: Designing Fully Recyclable Electronics With Varied Form Factors

Abstract: For today's electronics manufacturing process, the emphasis on stable functionality, durability, and fixed physical forms is designed to ensure long-term usability. However, this focus on robustness and permanence complicates the disassembly and recycling processes, leading to significant environmental repercussions. In this paper, we present three approaches that leverage easily recyclable materials-specifically, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and liquid metal (LM)-alongside accessible manufacturing techniques to produce electronic components and systems with versatile form factors. Our work centers on the development of recyclable electronics through three methods: 1) creating sheet electronics by screen printing LM traces on PVA substrates; 2) developing foam-based electronics by immersing mechanically stirred PVA foam into an LM solution; and 3) fabricating recyclable electronic tubes by injecting LM into mold cast PVA tubes, which can then be woven into various structures. To further assess the sustainability of our proposed methods, we conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of our recyclable electronics in comparison to their conventional counterparts.