In summary the iron is not in anyway currently designed for disassembly, this may be a deliberate design consideration due to the safety aspect of dismantling an electrical product but it is more likely to be a result of a short sighted design and development process that hasn’t significantly changed for this particular type of household appliance for around 10 years. As illustrated in the full report there are a significant amount of improvements that could be implemented from an ecological point of view however each one would need to be financially evaluated before being applied. Final word: This assessment has performed from an eco-design point of view, not necessarily a financially viable one; DfD though has to be economically viable for companies to comprehensively embrace it. Would it be for the household iron?

In conclusion, the non-metallic content of this iron cannot feasibly be recycled from a financial point of view. This is due to; the seperation process of the plastic categories being labour intensive. The cost of the recycling process is high and consumes a lot of energy and therefore not energy efficient. The pay back for recycled plastics is low in comparison to the cost of the recycling process. Therefore its felt that the iron should be shredded and the plastic content be disposed of in landfill or incinerated. Another factor into why recycling is not a viable option for this particular iron, is due to the plastics that have been used, In manufacture the iron should be made from one plastic, making the seperation process simpler.

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The metallic part of the iron was measured to equate to around 50% of the net weight. This means that it is a very significant part of the product which needs to be recycled. In order to do this in a more efficient and economical way the iron must be dismantled as much as possible. This reduces the amount of fluff (waste product) which is created during the shredding stage of the recycling. This is because the fluff is 25%wt. of the input and this is normally only destined for landfill. Clearly for moral issues as well as environmental ones the potential to reduce the amount of landfill is a must as it helps work towards a sustainable future. Once the metal has shredded it is passed through a few sorting processes. The first of which is a system that utilises eddy currents. This filters of the non-ferrous metals out of the ferrous ones. As the iron is majority Steel, Aluminium and Copper the steel is removed from the other 2 as it is a ferrous material. In order to separate the ferrous metals it is possible to use a Dense Medium system. By using a liquid with a specific density it is possible to split the materials from each other. These process then have successfully split all the materials which allows them to be successfully melted and recycled using a furnace. The energy saving can be almost up to 95% for recycling aluminium compared to refining bauxite.

Overall the iron is quite a simple product and there are no areas outstanding that are majorly inefficient. The production and assembly is mainly automated and as long as the processes are managed correctly there should be few energy losses. Current losses due to wasted castings and scrap material will continue to be reduced as new tooling and technologies become available. Will the current economical climate and legislations being passed on emissions, many companies will have already analyzed their production, material sourcing and product design to ensure that any inefficiencies are limited and that their product is economically viable. When the life cycle of the iron is analyzed with an average usage of twice a week and a product life of five years. The iron uses approximately 90 kWh. Production of a single item is estimated at 5 kWh. This gives a percentage balance of 5% energy use in manufacture, 95% energy use during service. With regards to the iron as a consumer product, the inevitability of new technologies emerging in materials and design of the product will help development and reduce energy consumption. Metal alloys will improve, maybe making the product lighter or making the soleplate thinner and quicker to heat up. Improvements in plastics may help reduce heat losses in the casing, so the iron runs more efficiently. The pull of the consumer market and the push of competitors will meant that there will always be new developments that will help efficiency and reduce the impacts on the environment.