Working life in green transition: A roadmap to meet challenges in the repair and reuse of electrical and electronic equipment.

Preventing products from becoming waste is the ultimate action towards a greener and circular economy, and it can be implemented at all instances in society, -from the daily decisions by consumers to political governance and regulatory initiatives.

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) are products requiring large resources in terms of materials and energy at production, which makes this product category particularly interesting to use, repair and reuse for as long as possible.

Currently the political pressure and expectations to extract resources from waste EEE is larger than the capacity to do so.

The rapid digitalization, contributing to EEE-waste and the lagging development of chemical processes and technical solutions to enable cost-efficient extraction of noble-, rare- and conflict metals, is of great concern in the context of green transition towards a sustainable and fossil-independent society.

With the proposed project, we aim to develop a roadmap that enable us to navigate the challenges in the working environment of a growing business of repair and reuse of EEE. We will measure and quantify the exposure to hazardous chemicals during the repair and reuse of EEE.

We will interview actors on the market and identify how risk is addressed at an organizational level and how preventive measures are implemented. We will elucidate the descriptors of a sound safety culture in the occupational setting and organization.

We will communicate the project outcomes to potential users, e.g. small and large companies, the trade unions and different NGOs, the national occupational and environmental clinics and the Swedish Work Environment Authority.

The goal is to ensure a good and safe working environment for everyone without compromising the opportunities for new jobs, economic growth and the green transition of society.