Analysis of the Efficiency of Various Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment’s Collection Routes: A Case Study Focusing on Collection Route for Waste Mobile Phones in the Tohoku Area of Japan

Abstract

Each year, more than 5 million Waste Mobile Phones (WMP) is generated in Japan. Since WMPs contain many rare metals and precious metals, it is essential to collect and recycle high-value metal resources from them effectively. Although multiple stakeholders have already developed WMP collection routes, these WMP collection routes’ current status is unclear. Furthermore, some WMP collection routes can only collect a small number of WMP, and so, their resource efficiency is low. This research aims to clarify each WMP collection route’s characteristics and evaluate their resource efficiency by conducting interview research on related stakeholders and the WMP dismantle experiment. The result shows that local government, authorized recyclers, and telecom carriers are the major stakeholders in collecting WMPs in Japan. To improve the WMP collection rate in cities with high population densities, using the local government’s collection route and installing an authorized recycler’s collection station is considered to be more effective. In cities with low population densities, the collection stations built by authorized recyclers are sufficient. The collection stations can also improve recycling behavior by offering points. Furthermore, the telecom carriers are encouraged to participate in the WMP collection business, but they should figure out a way to monitor the flow route of secondhand phones they exported and prompt the proper recycling of exported phones.