# Reverse Logistics Network Design to Estimate the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Take-back Legislation: A Case Study for E-waste Management System in Washington State

**Authors:** Hadi Moheb-Alizadeh, Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Amirreza Sahebi fakhrabad, Megan Kramer Jaunich, Eda Kemahlioglu-Ziya, Robert B Handfield  
**arXiv:** [2301.09792](https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.09792)  
**Date:** 2023-01-24  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2301.09792v1/

## Key points

- Growing focus on recycling and disposal of e-waste
- Concerns about resource recovery and environmental impacts
- Legislation holds manufacturers responsible for taking back e-waste
- Two different formulations of a reverse logistics network presented in research paper
- System-optimum model studies entire reverse logistics network from policy makers' perspective
- User-optimum model splits logistics network into two parts for optimum solution from users' standpoint
- E-waste collected through user drop off at designated collection sites
- Models capable of estimating economic and environmental impacts of take-back legislation at various stages of e-waste's life cycle
- Authors: Hadi Moheb Alizadeh, Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Amirreza Sahebi fakhrabad, Megan Kramer Jaunich, Eda Kemahlioglu Ziya, Robert B Handfield

## Summary

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the recycling and disposal of end-of-life (EOL) electronic products, also known as e-waste. This is due to concerns about resource recovery and environmental impacts. Many countries have either adopted or are considering legislation that holds manufacturers responsible for taking back e-waste at the end of its useful life. This research paper presents two different formulations of a reverse logistics network to estimate the economic and environmental effects of take-back legislation for e-waste generated by private or small-entity users. The first formulation is a system-optimum model that studies the entire reverse logistics network associated with recycling and remanufacturing of e-waste from the perspective of policy makers. The second formulation is a user-optimum model that splits the logistics network into two distinct parts to derive an optimum solution from the users' standpoint. In this system, e-waste is collected through user drop off at designated collection sites. By implementing these models on an illustrative example, the researchers demonstrate their capability to estimate the economic and environmental impacts of take-back legislation at various stages of e-waste's life cycle. The authors of this paper are Hadi Moheb Alizadeh, Amir Hossein Sadeghi, Amirreza Sahebi fakhrabad, Megan Kramer Jaunich, Eda Kemahlioglu Ziya and Robert B Handfield. This comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights into designing effective systems for managing e-waste in compliance with take back legislation.