The Application Of Computer Simulation To Economically Justify The Design Of A Life-Cycle Approach

Proposed German legislation concerning electronic waste states that manufacturers will have to take back their products at the end of their lives, and be responsible for the costs associated with the collection, recycling and disposal of used electronic appliances. The UK Government has stated in the past that its preferred option concerning electronic waste is to let market forces encourage product take back. However the Government has admitted that if producer responsibility does not occur, then it may consider legislation. In parallel to this some form of legislation may arise from the EC, which could be very similar to that proposed in Germany. Hence, as take back legislation increasingly places responsibility for product End Of Life (EOL) on the manufacturer who produced the products originally, companies will have direct incentives to design products that are recyclable in order to reduce the costs of landfill disposal. Design is likely to play a key role in reducing the costs of recycling. Interestingly some innovative companies are already taking back EOL products to their financial advantage. In the USA, for example, DEC recycles tens of thousands of computer monitors each year at a unit cost of between $3 and $6.50 because this approach is cheaper than the costs of landfill.