Recycling of Paper Electronics in Standard Paper and Board Recycling Lines (2022)

Printed electronics on paper substrates could be a solution to reduce the electronics wastes, especially with the booming of the Internet of Things. In this work, the recyclability of demonstrators, such as smart labels, has been studied using a classical paper recycling chain, made of screening and flotation unit operations. The printed functional material was followed all along the recycling chain, and the reject ratio of the functional inks was calculated; 63% of the printed material was recovered in the reject fraction. The separation of the functional ink from the paper substrate is thus efficient. Therefore, it is concluded that paper-based electronics can be recycled in a conventional recycling paper chain without disturbing it because most of the components and functional inks are separated and extracted from the paper elements. Replacing conventional electronics or printed electronics on plastic by printed electronics on paper will have a positive impact on the recyclability of the products.