Globally, more than 62 million tons of e-waste are generated each year, and less than a quarter is ever recycled. Prototyping and discarded electronics from rapid design cycles contribute significantly to this growing environmental burden. The new process developed by the University of Maryland, alongside collaborators from the University of Notre Dame and Georgia Institute of Technology, aims to reverse that trend.
The team’s method replaces conventional materials with a water-soluble polymer (PVA) as the substrate and a liquid metal alloy (EGaIn) as the conductor. When the board’s lifecycle ends, it can be submerged in water, where the polymer dissolves, and the liquid metal beads together for easy recovery and reuse. Initial testing showed a 98% recovery rate—a significant advancement for circular electronics.
Unlike industrial-scale recycling processes that require specialized facilities, DissolvPCB can be fabricated using a standard Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printer, commonly found in university makerspaces and research labs.
“Eventually, our vision is that all the materials that go into these computational devices can be locally produced and locally recycled,” said Zeyu Yan, a fifth-year computer science Ph.D. student at UMD and lead author of the study.
The research team presented their findings at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) in South Korea, where their paper received both Best Paper and Special Recognition for Sustainability awards. To promote accessibility, they’ve also released an open-source plug-in that enables others to design and test recyclable electronics.
“This approach is not only more sustainable—it can also be more economically beneficial,” said Huaishu Peng, assistant professor of computer science and researcher with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). “Anyone with access to an FDM printer can begin creating their own recyclable circuit boards.”
The DissolvPCB model could help localize electronics production, reducing reliance on fragile global supply chains while minimizing material waste. If adopted at scale, it may set a new benchmark for sustainable electronics manufacturing—where device components are produced, used, and recycled in the same region.
The researchers see this as a crucial step toward circular computing, where the line between production and recycling blurs into one continuous loop of sustainable innovation.
