Caught between ecology and economy: end-of-life aspects of environmentallyconscious manufacturing

Realizing what is actually discussed as Sustainable Development, among othe rs leads to the need of dematerializing our industrial economy. Here, one a pproach is to set up cyclical systems, connecting production, logistic and recycling processes in an environmentally-sound manner. This paper shows some of the latest results of the Fraunhofer IML's applied -research activities in this field with special regard to reverse logistics , disassembly and recycling. Thus, it gives an idea of some of the importan t aspects currently under discussion in the industry when setting up econom ically viable end-of-life solutions. Starting with a short overview on the legal situation and the responsibilit y of the producers for end-of-life products, this paper comes up with a new approach, for sq systematically analyzing and modeling end-of-life network s. The last part discusses some real-life recycling networks using the Deut sche Telekom and AGR/Electrocycling, one of the biggest recyclers for elect rical and electronic equipment in Germany, as well as the recycling of refr igerators as examples and shows ways of improving the existing and new syst ems from both an ecological and economical point of view. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.