A case study of transferring the effect of demographic factors on e-waste recycling to the waste container assignment model

Abstract

Collecting waste directly from the consumer could be considered the initial stage of electronic waste recycling. Despite numerous studies employing mathematical assignment models to determine the optimal location of containers for waste collection from end-users, no research has been deemed to incorporate the demographic characteristics of the regions into these assignment models. This study aims to accomplish more effective results by incorporating the factors affecting consumers’ recycling trends (the population, income level, education level, and age distribution of the relevant region) into the assignment model. By integrating abovementioned parameters characterizing regional differences in the micro sense and country-based differences in the macro sense into the assignment model, a generic model is structured to help local administrators determine their first-step e-waste recycling policies. The main contribution of the proposed model is that significantly more realistic results regarding the amount of e-waste to be collected can be obtained when factors indicating regional differences are included in the container assignment model. Thus, local governments could utilize these findings as a reference to create more sustainable policies for the next steps of e-waste recycling. The model application is demonstrated through a case study for a local government in Turkey.