EECONE

E-waste is a significant issue for Europe which EECONE is aiming to tackle. The team at SAL is investigating how to replace conventional materials used in medical sensing and wearable electronics with novel, biosourced, biodegradable components to improve the overall environmental footprint and end-of-life options for medical devices (with a focus on diabetes monitoring).
Stockphoto mit Recyclinglogo. Elektroschrott im Hintergrund.

The main aim of the EECONE project is to reduce e-waste on a European scale via the following strategies:

  • Increase service lifetime of electronic products by application of ecodesign guidelines for increasing their reliability and their repair rate, thereby reducing the volume of e-waste. Reduction and replacement of materials to decrease the impact of e-waste.
  • Reduction and replacement of materials in electronic components and systems to decrease the impact of e-waste.
  • Improved circularity by reusing, recycling, and waste valorizing materials/elements from electronic products.

EECONE's vision is to develop and embed the constraints linked to managing the end-of-life of electronic products from the very beginning – in the development or process design. EECONE is paving the way as a first step toward a zero-waste electronic industry. The "6R concept" will fully guide EECONE (Reduce, Reliability, Repair, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle).

At SAL, the project team is developing a minimum-e-waste sensor device for diabetes monitoring, using sustainable materials and substrates, with a particular focus on the potential for modularity (to increase recycling rates) and biodegradability (to decrease waste volume).

To this end, ~50 partners from 16 European countries covering different sectors of activity have joined forces to propose practical ways of reducing the volume of e-waste in the EU. Crucially, the entities that make up EECONE represent all parts of the value chain. EECONE's approach is interdisciplinary, covering the social, economic, technological, and policy aspects.

Project facts

  • Title: EECONE. European Ecosystem for Green Electronics
  • Program: Chips JU (EU)
  • Project coordination: Infineon AG
  • Project Lead at SAL: Sabine Lengger
  • Consortium: around 50 partners from 16 European countries:

Infineon AG Germany, ARCELIK Turkey, AT&S Austria, ROBERT BOSCH GMBH Germany, ROBERT BOSCH KFT Hungary, BOSCH CAR MULTIMEDIA PORTUGAL SA Portugal, COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES France, UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN Belgium, TEKNOLOGISK INSTITUT Denmark, DASSAULT SYSTEMES France, DESIGN AND REUSE France, FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG EV Germany, INSTITUT POLYTECHNIQUE DE GRENOBLE France, UNIVERSITE GRENOBLE ALPES France, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS France, CHAROKOPEIO PANEPISTIMIO Greece, INTERACTIVE FULLY ELECTRICAL VEHICLES SRL Italy, INSTITUT MIKROELEKTRONICKYCH APLIKACI SRO Czechia, INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AUSTRIA AG, STMICROELECTRONICS FRANCE, STMICROELECTRONICS GRENOBLE 2 SAS France, SIEC BADAWCZA LUKASIEWICZ - INSTYTUT MIKROELEKTRONIKI I FOTONIKI Poland, LEONARDO - SOCIETA PER AZIONI Italy, ORBOTECH LTD Israel, MELSEN TECH A/S Denmark, OZYEGIN UNIVERSITESI Turkey, PREMO SL Spain, RISE RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF SWEDEN AB, INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM Belgium, SMARTSOL SIA Latvia, GET ELECTRONIQUE France, SYNANO BV Netherlands, TECNOLOGIAS SERVICIOS TELEMATICOS YSISTEMAS SA Spain, USTAV TEORIE INFORMACE A AUTOMATIZACE AV CR VVI Czechia,  WEEECYCLING France, VITESCO TECHNOLOGIES FRANCE, NSBPROJECT SRL Italy, TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V LIBERCI Czechia, SOITEC SA France, UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PERUGIA Italy, LUNA GEBER ENGINEERING SRL Italy, ACORDE TECHNOLOGIES SA Spain, THALES DIS FRANCE SAS, ANIAH France, 4MOD TECHNOLOGY France, AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS, ECODC AB Sweden, TETRADIS France, ATEA SVERIGE AB Sweden, STMICROELECTRONICS SRL Italy, TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE DEGGENDORF, Germany, SWISS VAULT SYSTEMS GMBH Switzerland, CSEM CENTRE SUISSE D'ELECTRONIQUE ET DE MICROTECHNIQUE SA - RECHERCHE ET DEVELOPPEMENT Switzerland

Logo of EECONE including the 6R: Recycle, Reduce, Reliability, Repair, Reuse, Refurbish

Additional links

Project description at CORDIS Europa   

EECONE Project Website

Your contact person

Porträt Sabine Lengger

Dr. DI Sabine Lengger

Senior Scientist | Advanced Sensors & Electronics Technologies

e-mail: contact@silicon-austria.com

Research program

EECONE is a 49 partner-project, funded by the European Union’s Chips JU Program, and coordinated by Infineon AG.

Member Area
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