With the apparent effects of climate change, sustainability has come to the forefront in civil engineering, aiming for reliable systems and structures of low environmental impact. However, the market for electronic devices is growing rapidly, generating a non-negligible amount of electronic waste (e-waste). Components in e-waste, such as sensors from disposed electronic devices, may be recycled and reused in structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. In this paper, the design and implementation of a sustainable wireless SHM system composed of e-waste and recycled materials is presented. The sustainable SHM system is validated in field tests on a pedestrian bridge using a conventional wireless SHM system as benchmark. As a result, it is demonstrated that e-waste components and recycled materials are viable alternatives to implement sustainable SHM systems. With sustainable SHM systems, a contribution to minimize the environmental impact of the devices may be achieved.

With the apparent effects of climate change, sustainability has come to the forefront in civil engineering, aiming for reliable systems and structures of low environmental impact. However, the market for electronic devices is growing rapidly, generating a non-negligible amount of electronic waste (e-waste). Components in e-waste, such as sensors from disposed electronic devices, may be recycled and reused in structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. In this paper, the design and implementation of a sustainable wireless SHM system composed of e-waste and recycled materials is presented. The sustainable SHM system is validated in field tests on a pedestrian bridge using a conventional wireless SHM system as benchmark. As a result, it is demonstrated that e-waste components and recycled materials are viable alternatives to implement sustainable SHM systems. With sustainable SHM systems, a contribution to minimize the environmental impact of the devices may be achieved.