Impact of WEEE‐directive on reverse logistics in Germany

Owing to new legal requirements, essential changes in the field of treatment of electronic products in Germany are expected. However, consequences in terms of changes of organisation and material flows of the German treatment system are currently unknown. Thus, the objective of this contribution is to predict relevant changes occurring in this context. This lays the framework for a deduction of recommendations for political decision makers and actors of the treatment system.

Within this contribution, a linear, activity‐based model is presented, optimising the allocation of discarded products, disassembly activities and disassembly fractions to actors of the treatment system. Parameter and model modifications allow forecasting of future developments. In a case study, the model is then applied to Lower Saxony, a federal state of Germany. This allows a validation of the model as well as an evaluation of future scenarios.

Based on this analysis, impacts of new legal and economic developments on the treatment of discarded electronic products are predicted. Conclusions and recommendations for political decision makers as well as for existing disassembly companies are drawn.

The findings of this paper allow an estimation of the impacts of new legal regulations on the existing infrastructure for treatment of electrical devices in Germany. The applied methodology can be assigned to additional product categories and can be enhanced regarding the system boundary.