Website promotes pcb repair – not E-waste

A new website created by UK-based embedded test equipment manufacturer ABI Electronics has been introduced with the mission to promote the virtues and techniques of repairing electronics products rather than discard and replace.

The website, RepairDontWaste.com, highlights a movement started in 2015 for implementing the benefits of creating a repair-first approach in every business. The website already includes helpful posts, articles, and videos, and it is intended that the website will evolve to bring even more tips, advice, and case studies from across the world, in industries such as manufacturing, defense, aerospace, rail transport, energy, and others.

Repair critical assets

The ‘Training Resources’ section of the website provides access to resources about the technology, training, and standards required for the effective implementation of a ‘Repair, Don’t Waste’ strategy in businesses and organizations.

Source: RepairDontWaste.com

RepairDontWaste.com intends to explore the technology, training, and standards available to ensure that critical assets are effectively repaired rather than replaced, thus reducing costs, waste, carbon emissions and downtime, inspiring the next generation of cost-saving repair heroes.

The modern world runs on electronic systems that are designed to last many years. An enormous amount of natural resources are used to produce semiconductor chips and other electronics components, destined to be mounted on printed circuit boards that are critical to modern technology. These expensive circuit board assemblies are used in industrial applications to help control vehicles, production machinery, airplanes, wind turbines, etc. Typically costing from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, they are ultimately used to manage power, safety systems, complex industrial equipment, monitoring devices, and many other applications.

Replacing faulty industrial technologies for new ones is wasteful, unnecessary, and aggravates the burgeoning E-waste issue. According to the United Nations University, more than 50-million tons (Mt) of E-waste are produced globally every year, needlessly feeding world landfills. The common replace-not-repair mentality urgently needs to be superseded across the business spectrum, a vital step in eliminating waste, lowering emissions, and saving precious resources.

UN report

A recent UN report also predicts that global e-waste (discarded products with a battery or electrical plug) will reach 74 Mt by 2030 — almost a doubling of e-waste tonnage in just 16 years. This makes e-waste the world’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream, fueled mainly by higher consumption rates of electric and electronic equipment, short life-cycles, and few options for repair.

Only 17.4 per cent of 2019’s e-waste was collected and recycled. This means that gold, silver, copper, platinum, and other high-value, recoverable materials conservatively valued at US $57 billion — a sum greater than the Gross Domestic Product of most countries — were mostly dumped or burned rather than being collected for treatment and reuse.

According to the report, Asia generated the greatest volume of e-waste in 2019 —followed by the Americas, Europe, Africa, and and Oceania. E-waste in 2019 mainly comprised small and large equipment, temperature exchange equipment – along with screens and monitors, lamps and small IT and telecommunication equipment.

Conclusion

ABI Electronics ‘Repair, Don’t Waste’ movement seeks to draw the attention of business leaders, academia, and an even wider audience to the benefits and techniques of developing the capabilities to efficiently ‘repair-not-replace’ industrial electronic systems. This website was designed to give access to relevant technology and training for repair techniques, sharing the knowledge and best practices implemented by leading organizations that are reducing waste, costs, with the bonus of creating quality technical jobs across the world.

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ABI Electronics Ltd. is a leading European embedded test equipment manufacturer.

https://www.abielectronics.co.uk