Why make electronic devices from recycled plastic

The question that we should all ask ourselves, and mainly large companies, is: Why not do it? The result obtained is of identical quality to that of the virgin equivalent, with the same aesthetic and functional characteristics, where sustainability and quality go hand in hand.

First step

Faced with the challenge of improving the environmental impact of electronic products, it is easy not to know where to start. In these products there are so many different materials, components, processes and actors that the number of variables to be resolved is very large.

It has been proven that 80%
of the environmental impact it has
a product can be prevented
in the design stage.

At Hune we quickly identified an important part of the problem: the casings and other covering materials of electronic devices generate a volume of waste and an immense negative impact on the environment. This presented us with a high opportunity for improvement with a series of concise decisions: the virgin plastics that are used in 99.99% of the electronic products on the market come from non-renewable raw materials derived from petroleum, resulting in an unsustainable practice that starts of a finite resource and whose extraction and manipulation generates high CO2 emissions and serious impacts on the landscape and nature. The first big decision seemed to make itself: we had to make it from recycled plastic.

Plastic, the culprit of everything?

Plastics are often highly criticized from an environmental point of view, however the biggest problem is not the material itself but the lack of information accompanied by a poor waste management policy that allows for easy recovery and recycling. With correct use (and reuse) of plastics, the environmental impact can be even lower than that obtained from the use of alternative materials such as metals.

Every year, 8 million tons
plastic metric ends
in our oceans .

When we started this project, we got to work to ensure that the plastics in our products were certified as post-consumer recycled, a milestone for a brand as young as ours.

With this we have achieved three main benefits:

• Reintroduce plastic to the production chain: There are currently more than enough plastics in circulation to produce what we need. Why do we continue to use virgin plastics when there is so much plastic out there waiting to be recycled? By giving them a new life we ​​avoid deepening extractivism while preventing our lands and oceans from being flooded with discarded post-consumer plastics.
• Reduce carbon footprint: Obtaining plastic suitable for production from pellets of post-consumer recycled origin is much simpler than obtaining it from petroleum, it involves fewer processes and less energy consumption because, in fact, it is already transformed into the final material. To give an example, in the case of recycled ABS - a high-quality plastic that we use in casings - the CO2 footprint is, according to our calculations, 94.08% lower than that of the virgin equivalent.
• Close the circle on our products: Recycled plastics are in turn recyclable, so that in addition to giving a second life to unused raw materials, the materials we use can be part of other products in the future. This versatility together with correct management like the one we propose in alliance with the program JER – Collect, Delivery and Recycle and recycled by REMSA It allows tons of plastics, components and other high-value materials to be recovered and re-introduced.

Made conscientiously

When it comes to making decisions, we cannot deny that our pulse has trembled. We analyze the specific needs of each product to find an alternative that provides us with the same characteristics, but with a lower impact. We constantly seek a balance in all the decisions we make: its impact, its accessibility, functionality, costs, degree of toxicity, its disposal or recycling were some of the countless variables considered.

Today we are convinced that making our casings and coatings from recycled plastic (accompanied by an awareness and recycling facilitation campaign together with JER/REMSA) was the best decision we could make for our products. Nobody is perfect, and we are no exception: with a challenge as ambitious as the one we have set ourselves, there will always be improvements to be made. This is the best way we have found within our reach today. We know that there is still a long way to go and there will always be screws to tighten...we are (im)perfectionists and those are the things that keep us up at night!

What we do know today is that thanks to this decision we have been able to reduce the emissions generated by the coating materials of our products to contribute as little as possible to global warming. If you want to consult more specific data, the impact reports for each of our products are at your disposal on our site.

We hope we have clarified why we decided to opt for these materials and that you found the article interesting. Has it helped change your opinion about plastics, especially recycled ones? Your opinion interests us!