Early Warning System Design for WEEE Reverse Logistic Network: A Case Study in Turkey

Introduction

Reverse logistics (RL) is the management of product returns, resource reduction, recycling, reuse of materials, removal of waste, repair activities, maintenance and remanufacturing (Richey et al., 2005). In many countries, the most important reason for the growing interest to RL is environmental regulations. All around the world, regulations have been developed that impose certain responsibilities on the actors of network, such as manufacturers, logistics service providers, municipalities. European Union (EU) Directives 2002/96/EC and 2002/95/EC are two of the most stringent regulations regarding the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (EU, 2012). According to Directive 2012/19/EU in Article 3; Waste of electrical and electronic equipment (which is dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in order to work properly and equipment for the generation, transfer and measurement of such currents and fields and designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1000 volts for alternating current and 1500 volts for direct current.), means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard‘, including all components, sub-assemblies and consumables which are part of the product at the time of discarding. WEEE is the fastest growing waste group in the EU, and produced 8.3-9.1 million tonnes in 2005. It is forecasted that it will grow to 12.3 million tonnes by 2020 (REC 2012). The main objective of the Directive is, (1) to prevent WEEE, (2) to impose on the recovery activities and (3) to develop the environmental performance of all actors in the chain. Although the regulated WEEE management framework has been widely recognized, progress with regard to legislation, the collecting system and the construction of formal recycling facilities is slow, especially in the developing countries. In those countries, recycling is substantially undertaken by shadow sector, meaning that even if the responsibility for recycling task is assigned to manufacturers or authorised bodies; collection of used electric-electronic home appliances will be no easy task. In the draft program published by the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in 2016, collection target values were revised as seen in Table 1. The percentages are based on the total electronic product quantities set by manufacturers in the electronics industry.

* Turkish Environment and Urban Ministry (2016)