Chocolate circuit boards offer ‘tasty’ solution to e-waste
The sweet snack that is providing a solution to electronic waste
- Engineers at the University of Glasgow have developed new biodegradable circuit boards to address the growing problem of electronic waste.
- The innovative design involves printing electronic circuits onto biodegradable surfaces like paper, bioplastics, and even chocolate using zinc instead of traditional copper.
- These environmentally-friendly circuit boards can be safely disposed of through ordinary soil composting, offering a 'circular electronics' solution.
- The new boards perform comparably to conventional circuit boards and have been successfully tested in various devices, including LED counters and temperature sensors.
- This breakthrough aims to significantly reduce the estimated 62 million tonnes of electronics discarded globally in 2024, with potential impacts for consumer electronics and IoT devices.