Towards a Circular Economy with Environmental Product Policy

On 13 December at 1.15 pm in the IIIEE Aula, Jessika Luth Richter defends her doctoral dissertation with the title: Towards a Circular Economy with Environmental Product Policy: Considering dynamics in closing and slowing material loops for lighting products.

What really happens when we dispose of our lighting products? Critical raw materials in our lighting products have high value, but can that value be retained in Europe? LED lamps have many potential benefits over traditional lighting products, including longer lifetimes; but do long lifetimes mean we miss out on potential benefits of even newer technology? This thesis focuses on policies for lighting products, a product group that exemplifies many of the current product policy issues related to slowing and closing material loops as part of a Circular Economy. The aim of this research was to address gaps in knowledge about the performance of existing product policies and potential improvements in relation to the EU’s Circular Economy objectives.

Link to a pdf of the doctoral dissertation

The opponent will be Dr. Mette Alberg Mosgaard from Aalborg University.

List of papers:

Paper I       Richter, J. L., & Koppejan, R. (2016). Extended producer responsibility for lamps in Nordic countries: best practices and challenges in closing material loops. Journal of Cleaner Production, 123, 167–179.

Paper II      Machacek, E., Richter, J.L., Habib, K., & Klossek, P. (2015). Recycling of rare earths from fluorescent lamps: Value analysis of closing-the-loop under demand and supply uncertainties. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 104, Part A, 76–93.

Paper III     Machacek, E., Richter, J. L., & Lane, R. (2017). Governance and Risk–Value Constructions in Closing Loops of Rare Earth Elements in Global Value Chains. Resources, 6(4), 59.

Paper IV     Richter, J. L., Van Buskirk, R., Dalhammar, C., & Bennich, P. (2019). Optimal durability in least life cycle cost methods: the case of LED lamps. Energy Efficiency, 12(1), 107–121.                   

Paper V      Richter, J.L., Dalhammar, C., Tähkämö, L. (2019). Trade-offs with longer lifetimes? The case of LED lamps considering product development and energy contexts. Journal of Cleaner Production, 226, 195-209.