Reverse Logistics for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in China: Application of Linear Programming to Eco-Innovation in Industry

On January 01, 2011, the legal basis paving the way towards environmentally sustainable WEEE recovery and disposal in China has entered into force. Against this background, we propose a mixed-integer
linear programming formulation for determining the physical configuration of a reverse logistics system
for WEEE in Chinese contexts. The resulting optimization-based warehouse location model is applied to
a case study on the development of a formal WEEE recycling infrastructure in Greater Shanghai Area.
Based on the computational results, we identify several crucial factors determining the cost-efficient configuration of the reverse logistics system and derive recommendations for integrated network design.