A Comparative Study On Decision Objectives Of EPR For Electrical And Electronic Equipment

Waste electrical and electronic equipment(WEEE) recycling becomes two common worldwide concerns which is related to the resources and environment.However, as a new policy to promote environmental recycling, the extended producer responsibility(EPR) has been implemented in some developed countries. Our government not only pays attention to the status and the roles of manufacturers in recovery, but also encourages producers to take their extended responsibility, but lack of the research on how to formulate efficient EPR policy effectively, such as choosing the decision objectives. Therefore, this paper studies the impact of decision objectives on strategies and effects of EPR policy from the realistic background of WEEE recycling in China.Firstly, this paper reviews the related literature on EPR policy for WEEE from the perspectives of policy implications and applications, recycling system structure,recycling mode, policy tools and decision objectives, which lays theoretical basis for subsequent analysis. Secondly, the paper builds a three-stage dynamic game model consisting of producer, informal recycler, consumers and the government, to research the strategies and effects of EPR policy under the maximization of environmental recycling rate(MERR) from the perspective of government. Thirdly, compare the strategies and effects under MERR with that under the maximization of social welfare(MSW), and analyze the impacts of those two decision objectives on policy strategies and effects, and show the comparing results visually by numerical examples; Finally,draw conclusions by summarizing the results.This study shows that:(1) No matter which decision objective to choose, for the case that producer doesn’t participate in recycling when no policy, there is no optimal recovery policy for the producer, however, for the case that producer does, there exists optimal recovery policy for the producer, and strategies of the two decision objectives are affected by the maximum of WEEE salvage estimated by consumers, the handingprofits per WEEE of producer and informal recycler, the policy itself, and their relations,while in some conditions, strategies under MSW also need to consider the environmental cost per WEEE of informal recycling.(2) Three cases will appear when optimal recovery policy exists, including there is no differences between the two decision objectives, and the internal structure and the total amount of social welfare under MSW are better than that under MERR in a same environmental recycling rate,and MERR can give full play of producers’ recycling ability and achieve greater environmental recycling rate.Therefore, the government should consider all factors and choose the appropriate decision objective so as to formulate an efficient EPR policy. This study can be a reference of the related research, as well as provide some theoretical support and decision suggestion for the government to implement EPR policy.