Your Bill of Materials Decides Your E-Waste Before Launch

Your bill of materials decides how much e-waste a product creates long before it ever reaches a recycling plant. On this episode of the CTRL+Listen Podcast, James Sweetlove talks with Ian Levoi, founder of Selectronyx, about why circularity starts at component selection, how unplanned obsolescence and "end-of-life surprises" force costly redesigns, and why repairability should be treated as a design specification.

Ian draws on years as a systems engineer and architect in aviation and the semiconductor industry to explain how EU rules like the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the Digital Product Passport are moving repairability from good practice to expectation. The conversation also covers where AI helps surface lifecycle and wastage patterns buried in BOM data, and where it still calls for caution.

If you design, source, or manage electronic components, you'll walk away with a practical way to weigh repairability, reliability, sustainability, and total cost of ownership alongside price and specs.

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Resources from this Episode

• Selectronyx — FairSpec BOM scoring (free tier): https://www.selectronyx.com/
• EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR): https://oeil.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/en/document-summary?id=1785880
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-levoi-96b65272/
• ⁠Article: The EU Regulatory Super-Cycle: ESPR, DPP and CSRD for Your BOM⁠⁠: https://www.selectronyx.com/blog/eu-regulatory-super-cycle-espr-dpp-csrd
• Article: NRND is a warning. End-of-life is when the options: https://www.selectronyx.com/blog/nrnd-warning-end-of-life-options-close

Transcript

Introduction:

What would you say are the best ways for companies to I guess reduce and recover e-waste from their products?

Recovering and recycling should be the last resort in my opinion. Sou the cheapest, greenest unit is really the one that stayed compliant, available, repairable long enough that it never needed scrapping. So this proactive design then prevents the waste and yeah recovery is there to clean it up. So that's yeah that's why the circularity really starts at the bill of materials and not the recycling plant.

James Sweetlove (JS): So these days we might all be aware already of what the circular economy is but where in the components life cycle does that journey actually begin?

Ian Levoi (IL): Yeah. So people tend to picture circularity as a loop and there's a lot more focus at the end at recycling and reusing reuse. I think it's better to look at the start cause it really starts at design and everything after that is really just living with the choices that you've already made.

JS: Yeah, it makes sense because like you said, people just kind of view it as this end of life thing. It's kind of like an afterthought, I guess, for a lot of people in the way that they actually design or plan their products. Do you think there's been like a shift in that school of thought these days?

IL: Yeah, I think I think we're getting there. I think there's some regulations coming in like the ESPR for sustainability, Digital Product Passport. So I think we're moving in that direction. The industry needs maybe a bit of help just catching up. So where to focus a bit more on the product's life, you know, repair, reuse, recovery. So making sure those economy circular economy conversations are centered around the right place where we can be the most effective.

JS: And when I spoke to you before you explained that place was with the BOM itself.

IL: Yeah. Yeah. I'd say starting with the bill of materials is the place to start, you know. For example, picking a part with a glued-in battery or a sole source component or a chip near the end of its life, you've made a circularity decision there. You just did don't really see it as one at the time because maybe nothing flagged it. So really the circularity doesn't start at the end of life. It starts at the BOM. We just haven't had a clear way to see it there yet.

JS: Makes total sense. Can you just give a little bit of background about yourself and your expertise in this area?

IL: Yeah, sure. So, yeah, the name's Ian. I'm a founder of Selectronyx. I've spent years working in aviation. Also in the semiconductor industry as a system engineer architect. So on some of the most complex machines mankind's ever created. So with the you know a seemingly marginal component decision can have a huge impact downstream. So I built FairSpec engine and Selectronyx because I kept seeing that same thing. Teams making these component choices with the data working against them. Compliance sitting in one place and life cycle in another. Sourcing risk somewhere else, so yeah, just making sure the bill of materials is scored across all of it, and when a design is finalized, that's the goal.

JS: Fantastic. You have so much experience, it's great to hear your thoughts on this because it's such an important topic these days, and one of the other areas that's under discussion in the space is repairability. So with resources becoming harder to come by and a lot of countries like you said regulating wastage and repairability what do you think teams should be thinking about in their design process?

IL: Yeah. So it's it seems to be treated a bit as something that you discover later when a product turns out to be difficult to fix. But really I think it'd be good to think of it as a specification. So and then break that specification of repairability down into things like parts count, modularity, standard parts instead of specialized or bespoke parts, access, you know, all these things are measurable at the design. Things like yeah, for example, cost and size, you know, they're always on the screen when you choose. But repairability almost never is. So yeah, it doesn't really lose the argent. It's just never in the room.

JS: And obviously EU's been passing laws regarding repairability. So you have things like products that have been discontinued. They now have to be repaired after they cease manufacture. So I guess it's important these days for companies to actually keep stock of the components that they need to actually repair goods after they cease manufacturing using those components.

IL: Yeah, that's right. I think as I mentioned earlier, you know, ESPR's moving in that direction. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation that's moving in that direction. They're going to push for a public repairability scoring system. I think that's targeted for 2027, next year. So it is moving from good practice to expectations like you're talking about. Keeping stock of what standard parts you have to aid that repairability is key.

JS: So end of life surprise is a term that I've seen you use and I'd love to just have you expand a little bit of what that means. I know it's in relation to BOM component selection.

IL: Yeah. So I think planned obsolescence really gets all the all the attention. But unplanned obsolescence is far more common and really more preventable. So that end of life surprise that hits a bill of materials because the life cycle status was missed during or change when the part was chosen or shortly after. So for example you know a part goes not recommended for new design just after you freeze your design you know the stock might drop the lead times might stretch prices can go up and then you're forced into a redesign you never really budgeted for. So that's avoidable if the life cycle trajectory had been visible at selection and continuously is key post selection so you don't miss that change.

JS: That makes total sense. And then another topic that's has been really relevant in the space is e-waste and recovery. So what would you say are the best ways for companies to I guess reduce and recover e-waste from their products?

IL: Yeah. So recovering and recycling should be the last resort in my opinion. So the cheapest greenest unit is really the one that stayed compliant, available, repairable long enough that it never needed scrapping. So this proactive design then prevents the waste and recovery is there to clean it up. So that's yeah that's why the circularity really starts at the bill of materials and not the recycling plant.

JS: That makes sense. What would you say that you've seen are some of the biggest shifts in the approach to the circular economy in the last few years especially since I mean we've had some pretty big upsets in the supply chain industry and manufacturing since obviously you know COVID regional conflicts tariffs. What would you say people are doing differently in response to that?

IL: Yeah, I think people are taking sustainability more seriously. ESG sustainability and really taking the time to understand what's within that huge bracket of sustainability and where are the knobs that they can twist to really help get their companies in line with where they want to be regarding sustainability targets. So I think there's more awareness there. The compliance helps but I think companies are driving themselves to be more sustainable and it's coming from their own core values rather than just what they should be doing. So that's really great to see.

JS: That's fantastic. And then obviously this is the hot topic everyone's discussing all the time these days, but do you see AI or automation playing some sort of role in aiding this reduction of wastage?

IL: Yeah, I think the how you analyze the data and how you yeah all the all the many plethora of parts and electronics and the subcomponents subassemblies and parts that's a hell of a lot of data to go through and AI can of course help there with getting through all that information and working on best practices. That's something that I'm trying to use with Selectronyx using AI, you know, it's not going to give you all the answers and we should be cautious with things like compliance using AI and inference, but using it as a tool to help guide us and to and to get through that data in a more effective way to drive towards what the best answers are for the future. Because yeah, let's face it, it's a problem to be solved and circularity and how we can prevent e-waste and allow ourselves to keep growing the technology industry without damaging our resources irreparably. That's I view that as a you know very practical engineer mindset. It's a problem to be solved and I think AI is an excellent tool to help us achieve the solving of that problem.

JS: That makes sense. I imagine because of the sheer vole that some companies have with components with life cycles, you know, that sort of thing, they wouldn't even see some of the patterns of wastage because it'd be buried in the data. So I imagine that having sort of a system set up where it can analyze thousands and thousands of components over several years, you would see things that you missed initially and then you can make decisions based on that.

IL: Exactly. Yeah, that's right. So I think it's a tool to be used in particular for those data-driven decisions and picking up on those patterns., and yeah, I think there's a lot of companies that are trying to think of ways to introduce AI in a controlled and effective way. I think some other companies are maybe quite behind and they're a bit cautious and they're concerned about, you know, the security of their data and other things. So yeah, I think having a company that you trust that is that is compliant and that is aware of the risks who can help bridge that gap for you I think is valuable nowadays to help protect you from and protect companies from those risks.

JS: For sure. If you could give, I guess, one piece of advice to a company that's trying to improve their efficiency in the space, what would you suggest they do?

IL:  Yeah, I'd recommend try Selectronyx, recommend trying our tool. There's a free tier. I think, yeah, it's not a sales pitch. It's a come and try it. See the benefit you get from your own BOM or even a sample bill of materials or yeah there's sample ones built in as well. So I think using that can then even if you decide to use you know another tool in the future that's fine but I think looking at how the four pillars you know repairability, reliability, sustainability total cost of ownership thinking more inside those models rather than just focusing on cost and the technical specs I think can help people and companies broaden their horizons a bit more on what good supply and procurement decisions really look like moving forward.

JS: Great. And if people want to get in touch to discuss using that tool or just learn more about or have a conversation with you about regarding anything that we've talked about today, what are the best ways to get in touch?

IL: Yeah, you can you can go to selectronyx.com. I hope you maybe drop a link with the episode so people can find that, as the spelling's a challenge. And yeah, fill out the contact form. And yeah, drop me a message and I'll definitely be in touch.

JS: Fantastic. Ian, thank you so much. It's been really fascinating speaking with you and this is such an important space right now. Obviously with population growth, consumption growth, it's becoming crucial that we reduce wastage and you know the circular economy is something we it was something people talked about you know we should do that now we have to do that. So I appreciate your input on this.

IL: Yeah, thank you very much for having me James it's been a really interesting episode. Great to speak on this topic that I feel passionate about and yeah, thanks for the stimulating questions as well.

JS: No problem. And for anyone who's been listening, thanks for tuning in. All the episode links will be in the description, so if you need to get in touch or want to try anything that Ian's talked about, it'll all be there. And tune in next time.