Project in the Spotlight: Designing Circular Electronics: How Data, Decision-Making and Digitalization Are Reshaping E-Waste Value Chains

Key information

Project title: Circular Circuits: design of next generation electronics for a circular economy
Project in the Spotlight: N21006
Funding: NWO Perspectief

In a world where smartphones are replaced every few years and electronic waste is growing at an alarming pace; the question is no longer whether circularity is needed—it is how to make it work in practice. Behind the scenes of discarded devices lies a complex web of logistics, decisions, and missed opportunities for value recovery. The NWO Perspectief project P20-13, Design of Next Generation Electronics for a Circular Economy (Circular Circuits), coordinated by M2i, steps directly into this challenge, bringing together academic insight and industrial reality to rethink how electronics are designed, processed, and brought back into the value chain.

At its core, the project addresses a stubborn problem. Despite increasing awareness and regulation, only a fraction of electronic waste is effectively reused or recycled, leaving valuable materials lost and environmental impacts unresolved. Research shows that global e-waste continues to grow rapidly, while recovery systems struggle with inefficiencies, high costs, and fragmented decision-making. The bottleneck is not only technological, but also systemic. From collection and sorting to recycling and reuse, every step depends on complex decisions that are often still made manually, inconsistently, or without full visibility of product data.

This is where the Circular Circuits project takes a different approach. Rather than focusing on a single technology or process, it explores how digitalization, data-driven decision-making, and system-level design can transform the entire lifecycle of electronic products. Conducted at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the project builds on multiple research efforts led by students Oliver van der Meer, Ping-Hsiu Chuang, Tzu-Min Liao, and Pieter van Donk, under the supervision of Meihui Jiang and Dr. Koen Dittrich, each tackling a piece of the puzzle—how can organizations utilize technology and digitalization for a circular transformation, especially for the recycling industry, can how can regulations enable this transformation.

Rethinking Reverse Logistics Through Automated Decision-Making
One of the key insights emerging from the project is the importance of smarter decision-making in reverse logistics. Traditionally, returned electronic products undergo manual inspection, sorting, and allocation to recovery pathways such as reuse, repair, or recycling. This process is not only labor-intensive but also costly and prone to inefficiencies. Research by Oliver van der Meer introduces a fundamentally different approach: automated decision-making enabled by diagnostic testing and smart contracts with the blockchain technology. By replacing manual inspection with data-driven allocation rules, this system improves coordination between OEMs and End-of-life service provider while reducing operational costs. The findings demonstrate that automation can lead to measurable performance improvements, including increased profitability driven primarily by cost reductions in inspection and logistics. More importantly, the study highlights how transparency and decentralization—enabled by blockchain—can mitigate coordination inefficiencies across stakeholder.

Structuring Decision-Making and Enabling Digital Transformation in Recycling Operations
While automation improves execution, decision-making in recycling remains inherently complex. Firms must simultaneously balance economic, environmental, operational, and strategic considerations, often under conditions of uncertainty and limited visibility. Addressing this challenge, Ping-Hsiu Chuang develops a structured decision-making framework based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP), integrating multiple criteria, such as cost, risk, opportunity, and sustainability, into a coherent evaluation tool for process improvement. Through the development of structured decision-making frameworks, this research provides tools that help organizations navigate this complexity and make more robust, transparent choices.

However, improving decision-making alone is not sufficient. A key barrier to implementing these insights lies in the limited digital maturity of recycling firms, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, where processes often remain manual and poorly integrated. To bridge this gap, Tzu-Min Liao proposes a complementary methodological framework for process digitalization, combining Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with organizational assessments of digital capability needs. By mapping digital capabilities to specific processes, the study offers a practical roadmap for companies to prioritize investments in technologies such as data analytics, automation, and digital platforms.

From Policy to Practice: The Role of Regulation in Circular Systems
Beyond operational challenges, regulatory frameworks play a critical role in shaping circular outcomes. Policies such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) aim to incentivize recovery and recycling, yet their real-world implications are complex.

Research by Pieter van Donk on lithium-ion battery recycling highlights a fundamental tension: while regulation encourages local recycling capacity, it can also increase operational costs and push firms toward cross-border solutions.  This insight shows that circularity is not only a technological or operational challenge, but also a policy coordination problem, where regulatory design must balance environmental objectives with economic feasibility.

Across these studies, industrial collaboration plays a central role. A&M Recycling emerges as a key partner, providing real-world context, operational data, and practical validation of proposed solutions. Some other industrial partners, such as Reconext, also gave us a lot of insights from their knowledge level. Additional insights from the broader electronics and recycling ecosystem further strengthen the applicability of the research, ensuring that outcomes are grounded in industry needs.

What makes Circular Circuits particularly compelling is this strong connection between theory and practice. M2i’s role as a facilitator of collaboration is clearly visible — bringing together academic researchers and industry partners to co-develop solutions that address real challenges. This approach not only accelerates innovation but also increases the likelihood of implementation.

The impact of this work extends beyond individual processes. By improving how products are assessed, sorted, and routed through recovery pathways, the project contributes to a more efficient circular value chain. Valuable materials can be recovered more effectively, waste can be reduced, and new business models such as product-as-a-service or closed-loop supply chains become more viable.

Looking ahead, the project opens several promising directions. Further integration of digital technologies—such as blockchain for traceability or AI for predictive decision-making — could enhance transparency and coordination across the value chain. At the same time, scaling these solutions will require continued collaboration between stakeholders, from manufacturers and recyclers to policymakers and consumers.

As Koen Dittrich, WP5 leader, reflects: “What stands out in this project is how it connects different layers of the system — from product design to end-of-life processing. By combining data, decision-making, and collaboration, we are moving closer to making circularity not just possible, but practical.” Meihui Jiang, the PhD student on the project, who co-supervised the students, adds: “A key insight from this work is that inefficiencies in circular systems often stem from misaligned decisions rather than technological limitations. By structuring decision-making and improving data visibility, we can unlock significant value that is currently lost in practice.”

Ultimately, the Circular Circuits project shows that the future of electronics is not only about innovation in products, but innovation in systems. And in that future, waste is no longer an endpoint—but the beginning of a new cycle.