An international study led by Dr. Tamer Shuaib, professor of chemistry at The American University in Cairo, proposes treating electronic, industrial and plastic waste as a source of materials that can be used to manufacture the next generation of sensor devices, rather than viewing it as products that have reached the end of their operational life. The study was published in Nature Sensors, with participation from researchers at scientific institutions in Egypt, Australia, Spain and the United States.
The study indicates that the world produces about 62 million tons of electronic and industrial waste annually, while the volume of this waste is growing at a rate approximately five times higher than recycling efforts. This gap is placing increasing pressure on the environment and the economy, but it also reveals large quantities of metals, rare elements and carbon structures that have already undergone refining, processing and engineering during manufacturing.
From Waste to High-Value Materials
The research team believes that recovering these components should not be limited to recycling them in the traditional sense; instead, they can be converted into materials that directly support advanced technological applications. The vision focuses on two complementary tracks: developing technologies to extract valuable materials from waste, then using these materials to build highly efficient sensor devices.
These devices are important in fields including healthcare, environmental monitoring, food security and industrial safety. Research associated with Shuaib’s group has also demonstrated the possibility of using extracted materials to simultaneously detect very low concentrations of toxic metals, such as lead, cadmium and mercury, in wastewater samples. A study related to this direction, published in npj Clean Water in March 2026, addressed this type of application.
Potential Health and Environmental Applications
The research also extends to wearable sensors for monitoring biomarkers such as glucose and lactate. These applications illustrate how materials that would otherwise become part of the waste problem could be incorporated into technologies that help measure pollution or monitor health indicators, according to the study.
What Changes in Practice?
The study does not merely propose a model for recycling waste; it proposes a circular economic and technological system that begins with establishing local centers to collect waste and convert it into materials used to manufacture devices serving public health, agriculture and industrial safety. It also calls for designing sensor devices that, after reaching the end of their operational life, can be safely broken down or recycled again, reducing the waste that the technology itself may generate.
Shuaib emphasizes that implementing this model requires cooperation among policymakers, the industrial sector and society, alongside policies and standards that encourage the use of electronics and sensors made from repurposed materials. He also calls for increased investment in local facilities to transform waste into value-added resources, thereby changing the position of waste in the manufacturing chain from a burden to be discarded into a source of raw materials.
Researchers from The American University in Cairo, the University of New South Wales in Australia, the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain, and the University of California San Diego in the United States participated in the study. The source material was published on August 19, 2026.