Prospects of implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) concept for used laptops in Bandung City, Indonesia

Abstract

Currently, laptop becomes an electronic product that is widely used by the public. Similar with other electronic products, a laptop potentially becomes a used product or waste if it no longer has the desired technical specifications and/or have passed their service life. The management of used laptop in Indonesia is currently not carried out institutionally and relies more on the informal sector, including unofficial shops or service points for further handling. This paper aims to determine the potential of implementing the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for the management of used laptops preffered by consumers and used laptop shops in the city of Bandung. Questionnaires were obtained from respondents consisting of 80 households and 83 used laptop shops and/or service points. There were 3 types of treatment that are dominantly carried out by respondents of consumers to their used laptops, namely : just keep them at home (46%), give them to other people (27%) and sell them to traders/service points (18%). Although 60% of the respondents did not know about EPR, it found that 81% of them were willing to pay more when buying a new laptop for handling used laptops and 90% were willing to follow the take back scheme as an alternative to implementing the EPR concept. Similar results were also obtained from respondents of used laptop shops/service places. 83% of the respondents did not know about EPR, 86% of them were willing to participate if the EPR concept was implemented, including through a willingness to pay a higher price for laptops to distributors (65%) and were willing to paticipate a take back scheme (82%). Although the results above show positive prospects for the EPR concept to be implemented, other stakeholders should be involved while proposing the most suitable scheme of the EPR concept.