Imagine if the green boards inside your gadgets were made of special paper instead of hard plastic. This would allow old electronics to be tossed into standard paper recycling bins rather than ending up in a landfill. The team is figuring out how to make this paper strong and heat-resistant enough to hold electronic parts while still being easy to pulp and recycle.
Current PCB materials like FR4 are difficult to recycle, leading to high volumes of e-waste that fail to meet European Commission targets.
A paper-based PCB technology including specialized impregnated papers and conductive inks, validated through three industry use cases.
If you are a medical device maker dealing with high volumes of single-use electronic waste — this project developed paper-based PCBs that can be processed through existing paper recycling streams. This reduces the environmental footprint of disposable diagnostic tools.
If you are a logistics company dealing with short-term tracking labels and sensors — this project developed a way to integrate circuitry onto paper. This allows tracking tags to be recycled as paper once the shipment arrives.
If you are an electronics manufacturer dealing with strict e-waste regulations — this project developed a replacement for FR4 fiber-composite cores using paper technology. This enables a circular economy approach for consumer devices.
Based on available project data, specific cost comparisons or price points are not provided.
The project involves 5 industrial partners and focuses on feeding e-waste into the well-established EU paper recycling process, suggesting a goal of industrial scalability.
Based on available project data, licensing terms are not specified, but the consortium includes 3 RTOs and 5 industry partners.
The project specifically aims to meet EC targets for e-waste recycling by replacing hazardous materials with bio-based or secondary raw materials.
The project is scrutinizing every process step, including lamination, gluing, and soldering, to ensure the paper technology can replace standard PCB workflows.
The consortium is heavily industry-weighted with a 50% industry ratio (5 companies), including specialized players in electronic paper (F1 Paper), conductive inks (VFP), and PCB manufacturing (Malmö Mönsterkort). This balance, supported by 3 Research Technology Organizations (Fraunhofer, Joanneum, RISE) and 1 university, indicates a strong push toward commercial application rather than pure academic research.
Contact Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung EV
Contact us to connect with the CircEl-Paper consortium for licensing or partnership opportunities.
