Determining Environmental Costs: A Challenge in A Governmental E-Waste Recycling Scheme

Sustainability

Lih-chyi Wen¹  Chun-hsu Lin¹  Chii-pwu Cheng²  Tien-chin Chang² 

[1] Center for Green Economy, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taipei 106, Taiwan;Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan;

关键词: producer responsibility;    environmental cost;    e-waste;    recycling scheme;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su11195156

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) concept involves having producers take environmental responsibility for post-consumer products. Based on this principle, the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the European Union, enacted in 2006, is the most representative management program in the world and the most popular recycling policy many countries follow. Taiwan’s version of EPR for WEEE recycling, set up in 1998, had a focus on recycling fees determined by a recycling fee equation. Nowadays, the equation takes into account the consideration of the environment in the designs of products, in addition to the cost needed for recycling. The environmental performance upgrades in products, encouraged by the financial incentives from these considerations, is a side-benefit of this program. In this paper, the functions of the recycling fee equation that consider environmental costs are reviewed. It was found that in spite of the difficulty in determining the real environmental costs in practice, pricing is a mechanism which helps us to consider the cost of e-waste recycling, not only in terms of labor and administration, but also environmental quality.

【 授权许可】

Unknown