Service Lifetime and Disposal Pathways of Business Devices

Product lifetimes and disposal pathways are essential aspects of dynamic material flow analyses(MFAs), which have often been used to model stocks and flows of electronic devices and the resourcesthey contain. Existing studies mainly focus on the use and disposal of electronic devices by privateconsumers. The specific handling of business devices has rarely been assessed. This article presents theresults of a study conducted in Switzerland in 2015, comprising interviews with 28 companies. Devicesincluded are desktop and laptop and computers, mobile phones, monitors, televisions, external hard diskdrives and servers. Results are compared to data collected from Swiss private consumers. The servicelifetime and disposal pathways are fed into a dynamic MFA model to cal-culate the stocks and flows ofbusiness devices. With the example of indium, neodymium and gold, the material resources contained inthese stocks and flows are illustrated.