IMPLEMENTATION OF REVERSE LOGISTICS TOWARDS THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF E-WASTE: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY FROM ELECTRONIC COMPANIES

• Main Author: PUSPARANTI, RANIA
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/68189
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) has become a necessity today. Because of its broad availability and use, a large portion of the global population has benefited from increased living standards. The creation and use of these items can be extremely resource intensive. In various regions of the world of the world, rising disposable incomes, urbanisation, mobility, as well as higher industrialisation, are contributing to increased EEE production (Forti et al., 2020). All electronic products come with a life expectancy. Once they stop functioning or new technology makes them obsolete, they must be discarded, generating a waste stream that contains hazardous and valuable materials. This waste stream is called E-Waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). Around 50 million metric tons of e-waste are generated globally per year, with an average of more than 6kg per person (Baldé et al., 2017). This waste stream is the fastest growing solid stream, especially with the rising demand and use of electronic products. Many industrialised countries have established e-waste management systems. In Europe, the waste management legislation is under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive). It’s a legislative instrument established by the European Union to enable environmentally sound management of WEEE. The WEEE directive (Directive 2002/96/EC) was set based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which gives responsibility to the producers (manufacturers, importers) of EEE to collect end-of-use and end-of-life EEE from consumers and treat the collected volumes in an environmentally sound manner (European Union, 2003b). The Circular economy framework has high relevance in tackling the e-waste problems (Parajuly et al., 2019). Following the circular economy principles, this includes better product design to facilitate lifetime extension through repair and reuse of products and components and better recovery of valuable resources by making products easily recyclable on the consumption side (Parajuly et al., 2019). As one of the building blocks for CE, the Reverse Logistics (RL) concept has also received considerable attention due to potential value recovery from the used products. To comply with government regulations such as WEEE, most manufacturers already implement reverse logistics in their supply chain. Not only adhere to government regulations, but manufacturers can also enhance their corporate image by promoting recycling and achieving greater profitability by reducing waste (Lau and Wang, 2009). This research will describe and compare how sampled companies implement the concepts by adopting a case study approach with information collected through secondary sources and using thematic analysis to compare the findings. The findings found that both companies have put their effort to apply the circular economy, starting from product design to ensure the ease of disassembly of their product and minimizing unwanted waste; and the reverse logistic practices to keep closing the loops of their products by recycling and recovering materials from the waste. However, this research did not show how accurate the sampled company’s implementation is with what the companies are stating since there are no attempts in the research to prove whether their communicated information is valid or not.