Motorola backs "green" labels for eWaste

Many electronics manufacturers are making it harder for themselves to comply with recently introduced eWaste laws through a failure to embrace new asset management technologies.

That is the view of phone giant Motorola, which has warned that many firms are struggling to optimise their collection and recycling processes - now mandated under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive - because of widespread failure to deploy the latest product identification technologies.

David Barnes, product marketing manager for Europe at Motorola's Enterprise Mobility business, said that with manufacturers now legally obliged to recycle electrical equipment, they could better document and streamline the process by labeling components with information on where they originated, whether or not they are hazardous and which waste stream they should enter.

However, while many firms are now using such labels to aid WEEE compliance, Barnes insists they are largely relying on outdated, costly and environmentally damaging bar code labels, rather than more sophisticated Direct Part Marking (DPM) technologies that use laser technology to mark information codes onto components.

"DPM puts a 2D code directly onto a component surface and, unlike barcodes, you can guarantee it will stay there for life," Barnes explained. "It can contain all the information that determines how it should be recycled, and is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than printing out millions of bar code labels."

The technology also promises to deliver several advantages over radio frequency identification tags (RFID), which similarly contain rich product information but have been hampered by concerns over cost and privacy.

Barnes said DPM technology – which costs approximately £10,000 for a laser marker and £1,500 for handheld code readers – has already been widely deployed by automotive manufacturers and is likely to be installed by growing numbers of electronics producers in the next few years as they look for ways to limit the compliance costs of recycling legislation.

"The ability to track a product through its life and know what is in it is a key component of WEEE compliance," Barnes argued. "The information you can include using DPM can help with these processes and it should become an integral part of the initial production process. It'll mean that recyclers will be able to quickly scan the permanent mark and find out where the product is from, what hazardous components it contains and how it should be recycled."