Smart IT for a circular economy- SMART RE

The increasing complexity and variation of the rapidly increasing number of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) creates various opportunities within a circular economy, as well as challenges for reuse, repair and recycling centers. From an environmental point of view, both improving material recycling and extending the life of products are of great importance. An often observed obstacle to extending the lifespan through recovery and reuse is the following: the information associated with products is gradually lost over the lifespan of these products. Sustainability is thereby compromised. Recent innovative and technological developments such as intelligent vision systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) can offer a solution to these challenges. That is why the partners of the SmartRe project will experiment, demonstrate and disseminate how these technologies can be used for reuse, recovery and recycling. For example, it will be demonstrated how WEEE can be identified with a camera and how relevant knowledge can be stored and shared. In this way, both generic and product-specific information will be made available for common white goods and for electronic products. This is often described as 'Digital Twinning', which is seen as an important technological driver within an industry 4.0 for circular innovation