Electrical and electronic equipment recycling analyisis and simulation for urban reverse logistics services

The aim of this paper is the analysis of the service of electrical and electronic waste collection provided by urban communities and the identification of the main criticalities for the profitability of recycling service related business models. To support the identification of the critical activities of the service and to study analytically the economical insights, discrete event simulation has been used. In particular the study has been focused on the infrastructure offered by the municipality of Rome for the collection of WEEEs (Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment) with particular attention to the market of the personal computer (PC) recycling. The simulation model has been developed with SIMIO simulation software and the test analysis shown the dynamic behaviour of the system with different recycling options demonstrating the importance of the introduction of automation investments in sorting operation in order to improve the profitability of the recycling service.