The global volume of e-waste is projected to reach 80 million tons per year by 2030. This increase is driven in part by the shortening life cycles of electronic products—devices are often deemed "outdated," rendered non-functional through planned obsolescence, or discarded simply because repairability is no longer a culturally embedded practice, as it was 50 years ago.When an electronic device is labeled as "broken," the issue often lies not with the entire product, but with a single malfunctioning component—just one among potentially thousands on a circuit board. These components are standardized and typically perform generalized, simple functions, which, when combined, yield technological complexity.Instead of designing products in a way that allows such faulty components to be easily replaced, we have, as a society, chosen disposability. In a world of finite resources, this path is unsustainable. While much of this waste is classified as "recycled," this often amounts to little more than classification, with the actual problem externalized to countries in the Global South.The European Union’s “Green Deal” includes a “Circular Economy Action Plan” that addresses several important aspects such as the right to repair. However, it largely overlooks the issue of generalized electronic components found in e-waste. As a result, these components are usually subjected to downcycling—melted down despite remaining fully functional—rather than being reused.Design as a discipline—particularly product design—cannot ignore this issue. What might new design processes look like that take this reality into account? How can we develop new forms that treat electronic components as constants rather than on-demand variables? And what kinds of tools need to be created for designers to meaningfully engage with these technical challenges?The following projects address these questions.

Before such tools can be developed, it is essential to first understand the underlying issue. As previously outlined, electronic products are often subject to planned life cycles or cultural perceptions that make repair difficult. In many cases, the actual issue lies in a single faulty microcomponent—one that is standardized and, in principle, readily reusable.The conceptual framework of this project proposes a shift in perspective: rather than treating generalized electronic components as consumable variables, they are to be understood as constant resources around which new design processes can evolve.This approach calls for a fundamental rethinking of design practices. Product development no longer centers on the integration of new components, but instead on the recombination of already existing parts recovered from what is commonly classified as e-waste. This strategy also opens up the possibility of repair over replacement.By providing designers and technicians with access to knowledge about the components used in electronic devices, the opacity of e-waste is challenged—it becomes legible, tangible, and open to reinterpretation. Electronic products thus move beyond their apparent binary classification as either functioning or broken, and instead become modular systems—comparable to Lego bricks—that can be continually reassembled into new forms and functions.