Sustainable Printed Smart Labels Enabled by Electrochromic Display Elements

Electronics industry has a need to transform into a more sustainable and circular business due to rapidly increasing generation of electronic and electric waste (e-waste); reliance on rare, valuable, critical and toxic raw materials; complexity of supply chains; and regulatory requirements, such as the European Green Deal.

Opportunities for more sustainable and circular electronics arise from e.g. use of bio-based, renewable and abundant raw materials together with printing-based additive manufacturing. Previous reported studies show an opportunity to significantly decrease the environmental impact of electronics manufacturing with this approach.

Smart labels and smart tags based on electronic functionalities and attached to packaging represent a use case where sustainability and circularity of the electronics are important. When attached to a product with an established end-of-life management, it is essential to ensure that the smart labels do not interfere with packaging recycling. Therefore, sustainability and circularity of smart labels should be considered throughout their life cycle as part of a packaging already during the design stage, when most of the environmental impacts are introduced.

This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges of sustainable and circular electronics when attached to a packaging. One of the case studies is an electrochromic smart label based on a paper substrate and sustainable manufacturing by printing and component assembly. Topics, such as eco-design, circular design, holistic sustainability assessment, and end-of-life management alternatives will be included.