This paper is about the material energy flow in the company of the electric mobility scooter. Sustainability is discussed on how the components of the scooter can be made useful after they are damaged. Electric mobility scooters for disabled are the devices that are used by the disabled people to enhance their movement from one place to another. The circular economy is the system of regenerating wastes and resource inputs, leakage of energy are reduced by narrowing the material loops. This can be achieved through designs of long-lasting scooters, maintenance, reuse, repair and recycling. The circular economy is the process by which the economic models are created but there are no environmental impacts
The linear model just make and dispose of while circular economy ensures that the components of the damaged electric mobility scooter are recycled and remanufactured. Linear model maximizes more wastes, has more pollution, uses more energy and also is of high cost because there is no recycling (Bompan, 2018). The circular economy can help to meet the Paris agreement of emission reduction and is more sustainable than the linear economic system.In the company, there are some of the compositions of the electric mobility scooter that are manufactured within like structural and miscellaneous components (Columbia, 2012). The electrical components are made by the manufacturers and supplied to the company. The description on how the scooter components can be made circular through their material flow are:
Structural components of the electric mobility scooter
Major structural parts of electrical mobility scooter are the chassis, seat assembly, wheels and seat assembly. Chassis plays a major role by supporting the steering systems, wheels, and the transmission system. The wheels are connected to the frame of chassis indirectly. Chassis of the electric mobility scooter is made of aluminum, steel and magnesium (Brears, 2018). Wheel are also very important parts of the electric mobility scooter. Wheels can be recycled by collecting the damaged ones, sorting them to remove materials that may be attached to them, removing the rim that may be reused in the manufacturing of other products, melting the tire to be used as rubber and other processes and recycling (Dastbaz, 2016).
The process of recycling the electric mobility scooter components
The process of recycling the components of the scooter starts with the collection of the damaged scooters. Materials are then sorted from the mixed scrap metals or multi-materials waste streams. Magnets can also be used in separation and scrapers are used to improve the values of materials by segregating clean metals from dirty metals (Brears, 2018). Batteries have an effective recycling and collection chain. The first process of recycling the scooters is to remove the batteries by putting them in the safe stock to avoid any loss of fluid. The fuel is also removed in the next step to be reused in other scooters (Dastbaz, 2016).
The second stage is to disassemble the valuable components of the electric mobility scooter and grouped them differently like electrical, structural, and miscellaneous. The spare parts are the most valuables since they can be reused and recycled at the highest level (Elzen, 2010). After separating the components to be recycled, the next step is disassembling the cost-effective materials like tires, polymers and metals. Important metals for recycling are magnesium, aluminium and copper. Polymers and tires can be recycled through the process of thermal recovery (Falk, 2014). To allow the further processing, the metals are shredded to promote the melting process since they have a large surface area to volume ratio and can be melted using less energy where the aluminium will be changed to small sheets and steel will be changed to steel blocks (Gallaud, 2016).
Melting the metals and the other parts of the scooter are melted in the large furnace and every metal or material should be put in the specific furnace made specially. The energy that is required to recycle the metallic parts of the electric mobility scooter is very less compared to the energy used to manufacture the new scooters by new raw materials (Higgins, 2014). Purification is done to ensure that the product is of free contaminant and high quality and the method that is usually used in this process is electrolysis. After purification, the melted metals are carried by the conveyor belt to solidify and cool the metal. This is the stage where the metals are formed to the specific shapes for the production of another new electric mobility scooter (Wirtenberg, 2014).
Electrical components of an electric mobility scooter
Batteries are very important in the electric mobility scooters and consume an amount of significant amount of power of the scooter. The innovation of the batteries makes the electric scooter friendly to environment because easier to recharge and lighter improves the efficiency of the scooter (Winslow, 2011). Batteries have an effective recycling and collection chain. The first process of recycling the scooters is to remove the batteries by putting them in the safe stock to avoid any loss of fluid. The fuel is also removed in the next step to be reused in other scooters. The next step is the removal of the transmission fluid and stocked safely in the container tins (Vinodh, 2014).
The electric motor provides the power to the electric scooter. The rotor is made of the steel and some magnets and turns clockwise. When it reaches the poles of the stator, the stator power switches and keeps turning because of inertia. The process proceeds and transferred the mechanical power to the rotor.
Miscellaneous components
Upholstery is the leather cover or padding that provides the electric mobility scooter with the comfortable seat to enable the user to be comfortable. Transmission fluids act as the lubricants to help in keeping the moving parts stable and are recycled by putting them in the container for future use. (Taticchi, 2013). The tires are used to support the scooter and are also recyclable when they wear. The old tires are burnt with the presence of no or little oxygen to produce gas fuel to be used in the manufacturing of the new one, rubbers and cement. All of these miscellaneous components of the electric mobility scooters can be recycled by first collecting the components, sorting them, melting, solidifying and purification as the last step to ensure that the product has no impurities (Mulder, 2017).
Future sustainability and lifecycle of mobility scooter
This section explains the future sustainability and lifecycle of electric mobility scooter after the energy and material flow of the company have been made circular. Life cycle assessment of the electric mobility scooter has two main goals. The main one is the recycling the components of the scooter and their environmental effects. The life cycle assessment gives the environmental impacts of the electric mobility scooters. The main function of the scooters is to help the people with disability for moving from one place to another. The selection of the scooters leads to consequences according to the average weight, design, technology of the battery and life expectancy (MacArthur, 2010).
Life cycle assessment is the tool for evaluating the electric mobility scooter from the process of making raw materials until the product is discarded. It is the best approach to deal with the pollution by defining the products designs, energy source, materials, manufacturing, use and maintenance, reuse and recycling (Ministerråd, 2015). The first stage is the inventory analysis where the raw materials components that are used to manufacture the scooter, and operation of the scooter including the chain of fuel, maintenance, disposal, reuse and recycling. The framework has five major stages of extraction of raw material, fuel production stage, manufacturing stage, usage stage and disposal stage (Ministerråd, 2015).
The sustainable manufacturing process of electric mobility scooter starts with the assembling of the structural, electric and miscellaneous components. Items like the converters, motors, wheels, and batteries need the metals to be made and polymers can also be needed inside the scooter. In additions, the seats and upholstery are manufactured very light and stronger to meet the interest of the buyers. After manufacturing the electric mobility scooters, they are packed and wrapped and then distributed to the local scooter dealers for final sale. The plastics form the moving process are cut off and then placed in the recycle bins where they will be remelted and used in future (Lovins, 2014).
After the lifetime of the electric mobility scooters, they are sent back to the recycling companies to be crushed and made to the recyclable items. The tire must be removed from the scooter and the transmission fluid is drained. Both the tires and the fluids are returned to the company that manufactures them for recycling so that they can be used for future to manufacture the new electric mobility scooters. In the interest of reducing the use of nonrenewable resources for manufacturing the electric mobility scooter and materials like lead, rubber, plastics and metals can be reused in making a new scooter (Dastbaz, 2016).
All types of metals that are found in the chassis can be taken off from the damaged scooter, melted down and made into new parts like frames and radiators. Lead can be recycled into new leads acid batteries and the plastics can be melted and kept for the reuse (Abraham, 2017). The electric mobility scooter has some of the impacts on the environment that arises from the manufacturing of the scooter. Since the batteries are heavy the scooter is usually made to be lighter to make the scooter light. The electric mobility scooter has many components with lightweight materials that need less energy to process, produce and recycle. Motor and aluminium from chassis contain rare earth metals. The electric mobility scooter has less emission hence reduced the rate of pollution (Boyle, 2009). The principle of the renewable source of energy needs the removal of the fossil fuels in the production of the scooters, recycling and reuse.
The main renewable products for the manufacturing of the electric mobility scooters include the upholstery, tires and wheel. Tires and batteries should be separated safely from other metals used in the manufacture of motor, bodywork and suspensions. The components of the electric mobility scooters that cannot be recycled should be replaced by biodegradable materials. The company can use the approach of valorization where the wastes materials that are not recyclable are harnessed. The components of the electric mobility scooters are sold, for example, selling the used tires to other companies to use in constructing roads, making rubber mats and cement (Falk, 2014).
Parts of the scooter can be reused in the same company by selling the product to the disabled as second hand especially to those who cannot afford to buy a new one. The company is considering the application of sustainability and application of the circular economy where the negative impacts of the environment are reduced. The circular economy is the alternative of the linear economy which only deal with production, use and disposal. The circular economy of the electric mobility scooter ensures that the components are used to manufacture the product and returned to the environment without causing any damage. The company have realized the benefits of reusing materials which use fewer resources compared to their production from the raw materials (Garrido, 2017).
Long-term and short-term steps that accelerates sustainability
Industrial sustainability is the ability of fund generation, replenish the use of assets and invest to continue competing. In such a way there is nothing new about the components of the scooter being innovated in management and business models. The eco-innovation is practiced the electric mobility scooters that are being developed to meet the consumers’ needs at a competitive price and reduced the environmental impacts. Sustainable integrated production initiatives such as the loophole supply chain for both components including electrical, miscellaneous, and structural can produce the best environmental results in the long term with the simple modification of process and the scooters produced. The sustainable system is the management of social, financial and environmental demands to ensure ethical and responsible success (Boyle, 2009).
For the system sustainability to be realized, the short-term steps to be adopted can be building a national dialogue on the responsible usage and disposal of the component of the scooter. This dialogues basically to educate the people and also the buyers of the scooter on how the scooter is used, maintained, what to do when it is damaged and also how to dispose of them. They can be advised to return the scooter to the company so that it can be dismantled and recycle its components for future use or manufacture a new scooter. The conditions should also be created by the company that enhance sustainability such as the use of non-biodegradable to replace non-recyclable components (Boyle, 2009).
The long-term step that can be taken by the company to ensure the sustainable system of the scooter is integrating public policies. Through the bodies that are in charge of environment, policies should be made and passed to people through national media, signs and posters on the actions that the government will take unto them when they are found mismanaging the scooter components. These policies will ensure that all the damaged scooters are returned to the companies to be recycled. Also, some of the components that are not recyclable and are not biodegradable should not be allowed to be used in the manufacturing of the electric mobility scooters to reduce the rate of environmental pollution (Elzen, 2010).
This department will ensure that the company is well updated in terms of the system sustainability such that any technology involving recycling and reusing of structural components. The companies need the clear and steady directions from the government concerning the pricing of carbon, new energy generation systems and the tradeoff for greenhouse gases. Using the proven framework will enable the sustainability to become more comprehensive in the company. This will help in the evaluation of how the company is doing in terms of sustainability (Charter, 2018).
The few champions that have experience about sustainability and circular economy should be appointed to run the program and to ensure that the policies, rules and regulation are compiled to by the people. They can be moving from place to place to check if really the disposal of damaged scooters is done safely and if the components are being recycled as written. They can also make sure that sustainability and the circular economy is practised by most of the companies dealing with the electric mobility scooters.
Effective collaboration between the suppliers, distributors, manufacturers should be maintained to accelerate the process of sustainability and circular flow. Since the company cannot manufacture the electric components but the manufacturers can. The relationship will ensure that the company return the used and damaged electrical components of the scooter to the suppliers and suppliers too after recycling returned the new scooter to the company for sale hence the circular economy. Business leaders should collaborate with the peers in the industry and environmental organizations to reduce negative impacts and potentially innovate and recycle the electric mobility scooters. Young youths can also be involved in the process by encouraging them to start their businesses where they can turn the damaged rims, tires, wheels and others into effective artefacts for sale just to minimize wastes (Winslow, 2011).
Building a national dialogue on the responsible consumption with the consumers will accelerate sustainability. Some of the consumers may find it difficult to purchase the recycled scooter because they may not look very new. If they cannot buy environmentally friendly products, the movement of sustainability will stagnate. The companies need the consumers to engage in the dialogue about sustainability to be informed about the sustainable living and responsible consumption for the electric mobility scooters (Gallaud, 2016).
Conclusion
The electrical mobility scooters are environmentally friendly since they use electricity and they don’t need the burning of fossil fuels for power. They are very helpful to people with disability for movement. The circular economy is the process by which the economic models are created but there are no environmental impacts. The components of electric mobility scooter for disabled should be recycled when they are damaged to reduce the amount of energy and the cost incurred by the company. The components that cannot be recycled should be replaced by non-biodegradable. The sustainable system is the management of social, financial and environmental demands to ensure ethical and responsible success. There is need to ensure sustainability of the activities for manufacturing of the electric mobility scooters and planned about the business model and future planning of the company since all of them affects sustainability.
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