A circular system for end-of-life tires under extended producer responsibility

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a circular recycling system for end-of-life tires (ELTs) under extended producer responsibility (EPR) by integrating Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) and Industrial Symbiosis (IS). The system aims for sustainability and circularity in the tire industry, avoiding the detrimental effects of landfilling. It focuses on emission-free recyclers to create IS for ensuring environmental sustainability. Additionally, the system uses a “dynamic pricing strategy” to take-back ELTs from consumers. This paper also presents a “multi-period scenario-based nonlinear mixed integer programming” model to investigate the economic sustainability of the proposed system under uncertainty. Three different evolutionary metaheuristic algorithms, “genetic algorithm (GA)-based simulated annealing”, “GA” and a new variant of “particle swarm optimization” are used to obtain the solution of the model. Through a case study, it is found that the proposed system is economically sustainable and has the potential to aid in the successful implementation of EPR in the tire industry.