Stakeholder Perspectives on E-Waste Take-Back Legislation

In this paper, we compare two common forms of product take-back legislation implementation: (i) manufacturer-operated systems, where the state imposes certain take-back objectives on manufacturers, and (ii) state-operated systems, where manufacturers or consumers finance take-back through recovery fees. We show that their impacts on different stakeholders, i.e., social welfare, manufacturers, consumers and the environment, can be significantly different and stakeholder preferences for these models vary depending on the operating environments (e.g., production and take-back costs, and environmental externalities). We also consider the impact of operational externalities such as operating and monitoring costs, and show how they affect stakeholder preferences.