Balancing technological innovation with waste burden minimization: An examination of the global lighting industry

Technological innovation has the promise to catalyze reduced environmental impacts through higher energy efficiency, product design that promotes reuse, and use of benign materials. However, as new technologies emerge, it is easy to lose sight of the environmental burden associated with technology transition and premature replacement of technology. Though product turnover can lead to gains in energy efficiency, it also can contribute to the creation of expanded and diversified waste streams. The market for residential lighting products continues to rapidly evolve, with new LED products emerging each year. Technology change in the lighting industry has unintended consequences, including new waste streams associated with the obsolete products. This paper examines the waste burden that occurs as a consequence of technology change when lighting products are replaced or upgraded. To understand the impact of residential lighting replacement, the authors used life cycle assessment to evaluate LED products. We defined three personas representing various typical technology adopters within the product adoption curve to quantify the volume and change rate of lighting products. The personas have also been used to estimate the waste impact for larger populations, and the results show that while an innovator's waste burden is lowest amongst the three personas, a non-trivial waste burden accompanies the transition to LED lighting products for all three personas. The results quantify the waste burden of high performance lighting and further motivate the development and implementation of recycling programs and policies to prevent waste diverted to landfills by consumers. The results also confirm that attention must be paid to how to reduce the waste burden of LED lighting products through improved design and lighting as a service models.