WEEE Recycling and Circular Economy Assisted by Collaborative Robots

Considering the amount of waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) generated each year at an increasing rate, it is of crucial importance to develop circular economy solutions that prioritize reuse and recycling, as well as reducing the amount of waste that is disposed of at landfills. This paper analyses the evolution of the amount of WEEE collection and its recycling rate at the national and European levels. It also describes the regulatory framework and possible future government policy measures to foster a circular economy. Furthermore, it identifies the different parts and materials that can be recovered from the recycling process with a special emphasis on plastics. Finally, it describes a recycling line that has been designed for the dismantling of computer cathodic ray tubes (CRT)s that combines an innovative participation of people and collaborative robots which has led to an effective and efficient material recovery solution. The key issue of this human–robot collaboration relies on only assigning tasks that require human skills to operators and sending all other tasks to robots. The first results from the model show a better economic performance than current manual processes, mainly regarding the higher degree of separation of recovered materials and plastic in particular, thus reaching higher revenues. This collaboration also brings considerable additional benefits for the environment, through a higher recovery rate in weight and for workers, who can make intelligent decisions in the factory and enjoy a safer working environment by avoiding the most dangerous tasks.