The world is expected to generate 74.7 million tonnes of e-waste by 2030, as rising sales and shorter product life cycles see obsolete devices and machines abandoned quickly. These e-wastes contain toxic elements, such as heavy metals, unsustainable plastics and flame retardants, and when disposed in landfills and oceans, or burned in incinerators, contribute to global warming, and pose a threat to animal survival and human health.

Despite efforts in promoting the recycling of e-waste to reduce pollution, only 17.4 per cent of e-waste globally in 2019 was recycled. The process of recycling e-waste is challenging because e-wastes are sophisticated in their structures, and are manufactured with various materials such as metals, plastics, and glass.

While recycling our devices and machines are one way to reduce e-waste, we could learn from nature and design our electronic devices sustainably, minimizing the environmental impacts across their entire lifecycle ^[1]. In nature, all living things abide by two main feedback systems:

1. everything, once deceased and decomposed, becomes fuel for others;
2. each organism adapts and responds to dynamic environments with homeostatic self-regulation processes.

One of the promising ways is improving the durability of machines through self-healing or self-repairing soft robots ^[2,3]. Soft robots typically consist of biomaterials, intelligent systems or a combination of both. Biomaterials tend to be natural, self-repairable, reusable, recyclable, or biodegradable. For instance, a self-healing biomaterial can regain its functions through the recovery of the desired material properties without an increase in the original mass ^[4], increasing the lifespan of robots made with such materials.

We can also integrate robots with intelligent homeostasis systems such as self-adaptability or self-healing systems which can identify defects, initiate healing and monitor healing progress, akin to human organs like our skin and liver. The ability to autonomously perform repair functions is also useful for activity in unpredictable environment such as space, underwater and forest.

With the average person owning multiple smart devices and household appliances, soft robot solutions are expected to help address the buildup of e-waste, and reduce pollution in the world.

As Singapore increasingly adopts technologies that are smart, automated and contribute to global sustainability goals, designing eco-sustainable materials and deploying green and intelligent soft robots can create high value-added sustainable technologies with less burden on our homeland.