Disassembly-based bill of materials data for consumer electronic products

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Environmental Science
• Engineering

Background:

• Consumer electronics have complex life cycles with significant environmental, social, and economic impacts.
• Understanding material composition is crucial for analyzing trade-offs and developing sustainable solutions.
• Manufacturer data on materials and components is scarce, often limited to disparate case studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a comprehensive database of bill of materials (BOM) for consumer electronic products.
• To provide a reproducible framework for organizing and expanding BOM data.
• To support research in electronics sustainability, material scarcity, product design, life cycle assessment, and waste policy.

Main Methods:

• Product disassembly and physical characterization of 95 unique consumer electronic products.
• Compilation of a detailed database of major materials and components by mass.
• Validation of generated data against external literature benchmarks.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive database of bill of materials (BOM) data for 95 consumer electronic products.
• A reproducible framework for organizing and expanding BOM data for future products.
• Validated data on the mass of major materials and components in consumer electronics.

Conclusions:

• The developed BOM database and framework are valuable resources for researchers in electronics and sustainability.
• The data will aid in addressing material scarcity, improving product design, and informing electronic waste policy.
• This work facilitates a deeper understanding of the environmental and health impacts of consumer electronics.