Adopting a Circular Economy Business Model for Resource Efficiency in ICT industry (ACE4ICT)

Start date: 1 May 2023
End date: 30 April 2025
Principal investigator: Dr Dhaval Thakker (University of Hull)
Co-investigators: Dr Nishikant Mishra (University of Hull), Dr Sushma Kumari (University of Hull), Jyoti Mishra (contract)

Description

Harmful chemicals and metals from e-waste affect our environment and human health. The UK produced 24.9kg of e-waste per person in 2016, 10kg more than the EU average. The Waste Prevention Programme, underpinned by the Environment Bill, encourages product reuse, repair and remanufacture. In this project, Decision Support System will be developed to extend the life cycle of laptops from five years to nine years thus having a considerable impact on reducing waste.

Enabling the company to offer a new software-supported service to new markets and existing clients so they can monitor and diagnose issues at an early stage on their electronic devices, facilitating data-driven decision-making on the economic and environmental benefits to repair instead of replacing, supporting the circular economy and sustainability goals.

Research overview

The objective of this project is to develop a reliable Circular Economy-based Decision Support System "DSS" using real-time component monitoring. The DSS will enable Techbuyer and their licensees to monitor their laptop assets at the hardware component level in real-time and proactively offer information on their performance to support circularity decisions.