Take-back of discarded consumer electronic products from the perspective of the producer: conditions for success

Take-back and recycling costs of discarded television sets can be brought down substantially by a combination of design improvements, technology improvements and by achieving economy of scale in the processing. Authorities can enhance the eco-efficiency further by appropriate supporting policies. It is estimated that, compared with the present situation, the total environmental gain over cost ratio can be pushed up by a factor 4 to 8. Prospects to improve end-of-life performance of smaller consumer electronic products (audio, VCR, etc.) are much less. In view of the fact, however, that television sets make approximately 60% by weight of the total waste stream, the improvement potential of the total stream is large.