Sustainable E-waste supply chain management with price/sustainability-sensitive demand and government intervention

The impact of appropriate E-waste management practices on the environment, human health, and natural resources has made E-waste management an interesting research topic in recent decades. Research also shows that government intervention is an important factor in controlling the emission volume produced by waste management systems. This study considers a base E-waste supply chain in which a collection center is responsible for collecting E-waste and delivering it to a recycling center. The recycling center recovers valuable material and sells it to electronic device manufacturing companies using a price/sustainability-sensitive demand. E-waste material recovery generates emissions that are undesirable for manufacturing companies. Two extended cases regarding the base supply chain are studied, as well: (1) the recycling center is also active in E-waste collection. (2) There are two active recycling centers. Although the sustainability-sensitive demand is a controlling factor for material recovery emissions, government interferences through tariff and emission penalties make sure that sustainable issues are considered in the material recovery process. Each plant in this study makes a marginal profit by processing E-waste; therefore, it is important to know which plant is the primary decision-maker when it comes to price. Because of its capability in terms of solving interactive decision-making problems, game theory is used to model different scenarios in our problem. Equilibrium values are derived, and a numerical example with parameter sensitivity analysis is provided to show the applicability of the proposed models. The results show that the E-waste supply chain makes more profit and selects a higher level of material recovery sustainability if the plants work under a centralized decision-making framework. Moreover, it is more profitable for the entire E-waste supply chain if the recycling center undertakes a portion of the E-waste collection activity.