The joint impact of environmental awareness and system infrastructure on e-waste collection

The prevailing literature on the design of reverse logistics networks for e-waste collection recognizes the accessibility of the collection sites as a key driver of the consumers’ return behavior. The propensity of a consumer to return an end-of-use or an end-of-life item, however, also depends on his/her sensitivity to environmental sustainability. In this paper, we study the impact of simultaneously determining the optimal density of a network of collection centers as well as the most appropriate level of investment in the public's environmental awareness. We adopt a Nerlove-Arrow-type advertising model to capture the potential influence of public awareness campaigns in increasing the consumers’ environmental sensitivity over time. The potential negative impact of the travel distance to the nearest collection site is also incorporated. Thus, we present a dynamic modeling framework for the joint design of the network infrastructure and the public campaign intensity. A case study is presented based on the operations of the Canadian E-Waste Stewardship Program in the Greater Vancouver region. We find that investments into environmental awareness can enable the take-back scheme to improve its collection rates significantly. Our findings through the case study also reveal that running an advance campaign prior to the launch of the collection network can be an effective strategy in most cases. In addition, we present an extended model, which highlights that increasing the investment in environmental awareness can be utilized as a lever to offset the impact of increased hauling costs.