A multi-objective reverse logistics network design for waste electrical and electronic equipment: the case of Istanbul (Atık elektrikli ve elektronik eşyalar için çok amaçlı bir tersine lojistik ağ tasarımı: İstanbul uygulaması)

Official URL: http://dergipark.gov.tr/download/article-file/613834

In this study, we propose a multi-objective mixed-integer programming model for the collection of Waste of Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Istanbul, by following the requirement set by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization WEEE Directive. The model considers three aspects of sustainability, namely economic, environmental and social. Although the responsibilities of related authorities explicitly defined in the directive, illegal WEEE collectors still operate in the collection system. These illegal collectors do not utilize proper equipment and provide necessary conditions for the treatment of WEEE, which may cause significant health-related and life-threatening issues. By taking this situation into account, we adopt the official employment of illegal WEEE scrap dealers and inclusion of their junk yards into legal waste stream as the social objective of the model. In other words, maximizing the employment is one of the objectives. The remaining two objectives deal with minimizing the adverse environmental effect of reverse logistics activities and maximizing the overall profit of WEEE treatment and recovery network. The proposed model is solved using CPLEX solver by utilizing the epsilon-constraint method. We consider various scenarios with respect to WEEE collection targets to make WEEE treatment facilities siting decisions and to determine the subsidy amounts for the scrap dealer junkyards which will be included in the recovery system and discuss the results.