I sat down with Simon Fisher of F Mark the other day and we talked about where lighting product design is headed. Was Simon positive about the future?
Its really simple. We need to do more; much, much more to play our part in addressing the single biggest climate and environmental challenge we have ever known. It also appears that, due to the vastness and complexity of the challenge, it is also the reason why we are not doing as much as we can. Recycling is not the ‘one-stop-shop’ answer to the problem.
Just this week, I read an article from Nigel Harvey at Recolight calling for a re-think of the WEEE directive. And, of course, this relies on everyone getting on board with the initiative!
‘We found that 76% of LED light bulbs offered for sale on one marketplace were not WEEE compliant.’ Nigel Harvey, Recolight, July 2019
End-of-Life recycling is a sticking plaster over a gaping wound
We need to move away from appeasing our conscience by complying with a tick box environmental policy and rapidly move towards embracing a robust Circular Economy, where fixtures are no longer designed as single use items and have the ability to be reused, re-purposed and recycled at the end of life. As a product designer to the lighting industry, I’m excited about the fact that this is not some kind of pipedream fantasy to realise. Lighting is the perfect medium to exploit basic principles that allow fixtures to be:
- designed for long use (product design that resists obsolescence and is engineered to be durable throughout lifetime),
- designed for extended use (product design that postpones obsolescence and is engineered for ease of maintenance and upgrade throughout product lifetime),
- designed for recovery (product design which allows repair, refurbishment and remanufacture at the end of product life)
We understand the principles of lamp replacement, so its not a huge leap to see how LED modules can be re-used. Couple this with integrating Smart solutions and we can monitor the internal wellbeing of the ‘asset’. We can make accurate analysis of the condition of our fixtures and make informed decisions about re-purposing and reuse, instead of arbitrarily consigning them for recycling or, worse still, churning them into the ground. We can look to Closed Loop Manufacturing (CLM) processes, where new products are made from 100% recycled materials. This way we are starting from a sustainable position, not just trying to end up in one, somewhat apologetically
The good news is that, from the research we’ve done at F Mark, all the core technologies and processes required to initiate this already exists. We just have to connect it all together to make it happen.
Doesn’t this make our products prohibitively expensive?
No, not necessarily. We have found that some CLM processes are more cost-effective at a piece-part level than using virgin material.
Does the quality of the product suffer by using recycled materials?
No, not necessarily. For instance, not applying finishing processes to heatsinks could make the product thermally perform better (and could be supplied at a cheaper price). The trade-off is that we see a natural aluminium heatsink, not a uniformly finished black heatsink which, once installed, is never viewed by the end user anyway…
Does this mean that products will improve wellbeing and our working and living environment?
Absolutely, yes! By having the ability to monitor the condition of installed fixtures, it will be possible to understand problems and be pro-active in dealing with them. Monitoring and replacing products to maintain optimum lighting conditions is relatively easy to realise. Integration of Smart can help utilise space and reduce energy
What will this mean for the OEM who plays such a major part in UK lighting manufacture?
What this does is to challenge the OEM to think differently about lighting fixtures. Not look at product development in terms of a single item, to be sold once. They need to develop strategies and frameworks that can track assets, monitor their condition in real time and make informed judgements about the point that the asset has reached in its lifecycle. OEMs have the potential (and Lighting as a Service – LaaS – facilitates this further), to sell / lease lighting, determine the criteria for ‘first life’, re-assign an asset to have a second, third, fourth life, before finally consigning a fixture for repurposing or recycling
In principle, we can get to a position where waste no longer exists in a circular economy, because products and materials are, in theory, reused and recycled indefinitely. We can create and maintain healthy environments, with good quality products, which has little or no impact on the environment.
Thank you, Simon.
