Design for Disassembly

Design for disassembly (DfD) is a technical topic that often misunderstood. Designers and engineers often assume that design for disassembly means design for manual disassembly (disassembly with hand tools). Some products will be entirely manually disassembled at end of life. Some will be entirely shred in material shredders (like automobile shredders), after which the materials will be sorted by sorting equipment. Many products will be partially manually disassembled (to remove valuable, toxic or large mono-material parts). Some DfD design guidelines apply to all products and subassemblies, regardless of whether they will be shred or manually disassembled. Assemblies that will be manually disassembled are subject to manual DfD guidelines.

http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/afterlife_an_essential_guide_to_design_for_disassembly_by_alex_diener__15799.asp
Alex Diener addresses some of the problems and strategies designers can consider when designing for disassembly.

http://www.activedisassembly.com/guidelines/ADR_050202_DFD-guidelines.pdf
This technical paper outlines considerations of design for manual disassembly.

http://www.designforrepurposing.com/dfr/Why_DfD.html
Darinka Aguirre discusses design for repurposing: reusing components in new functions.

http://www.designnews.com/article/1067-Efforts_Grow_to_Design_for_Disassembly.php
Design news describes DfD considerations in this article.