What the circular economy actually means for electronics, and why reuse sits ahead of recycling in the priority order.
The circular economy is often shorthand for 'recycling,' but the actual priority order for electronics runs: reduce, reuse, refurbish, and only then recycle. Recycling recovers materials, but it also takes energy and resources to do it — keeping a working device in use for longer avoids that cost entirely.
In practice, this means assessing equipment for reuse and refurbishment before recycling is even considered, recovering components (a working power supply, a good screen) from devices that can't be fully repaired, and only sending genuinely end-of-life material to material recovery.
A purely recycling-focused model still generates demand for new raw materials, since recycling processes rarely recover 100% of the original material, and always cost more energy than not needing to manufacture a replacement at all. Closing the loop properly means recycling is the last resort in the chain, not the default response to old electronics.
