Planning Grant: I/UCRC for Resource Recovery and Recycling

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

PROGRAM DIRECTOR'S RECOMMENDATION IIP 1035027 Purdue University Handwerker Purdue University (PU) is planning to join the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) entitled "Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (CR3)" which currently is a multi- university center comprised of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (lead institution) and the Colorado School of Mines. The mission of CR3 is to conduct research that enables innovative recovery and recycling processing technologies that maximize the capture of post-consumer's scrap and minimize the quantity of manufacturing scrap. PU requests funding for becoming a third site of the NSF Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling under the leadership of Professor Carol Handwerker. The proposed site will focus on three thrust areas: Sustainable Electronic Materials, Sustainable Product Design and Processing, and Logistics, Supply Chain and Policy. Purdue University's participation will have a positive, measurable impact on improving the sustainability of electronic products. The addition of Purdue University will strengthen the existing Center by bringing into the consortium industries in the electronic sector. If successful, producing more sustainable electronics will have a substantial environmental, social and technological impact on the way products are designed and manufactured. The proposed research in sustainable electronics has the opportunity for global impact, particularly in integrating the needs of the electronics industry, its supply chain, and the many entities that affect sustainability. The interactions with the electronics industry will benefit both the students (in understanding the interdisciplinary nature of global industry problems) and the faculty who can subsequently design a better curriculum in sustainable industrial systems. Broadening participation is also a top priority for this site, and will involve underrepresented minorities and women within the Center activities.