Waste input-output analysis of disposal, recycling, and extended life of electric home appliances

Economic and emission effects of alternative life-cycle strategies for electric home appliances were analyzed by use of waste input-output (WIO). The strategies consist of (1) landfilling, (2) conventional shredding with iron recovery, (3) integrated recycling with the recovery of metals, glass, and plastics, and (4) extension of products lives without and with increased maintenance and updating activities. It was found that strategy 3 outperformed strategies 1 and 2 in terms of both CO₂ emission and landfill consumption. The result was robust to the variation of transport conditions. The overall increase in labor cost under strategy 3 turned out almost neutral. Strategy 4 outperformed strategy 3 in terms of environmental effects. The extent to which the reduced sales of new appliances were compensated by the increased demand for maintenance was found to have significant effects on the level of employment