Title: Facility location planning for treatment of large household appliances in Spain

Authors: Grit Walther, Thomas Spengler, Dolores Queiruga

Addresses: Department of Production and Logistics Management, Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Katharinenstrabe 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. ' Department of Production and Logistics Management, Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Katharinenstrabe 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. ' Department of Production and Logistics Management, Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Katharinenstrabe 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

Abstract: A two-step approach is presented for strategic planning of recycling systems for discarded electronic products. In a first step, the appropriateness of municipalities for the installation of recycling facilities is evaluated based on economic, infrastructural, and legal location criteria applying a Multi-Attribute Decision-Making procedure (PROMETHEE). In a second step, interdependencies of pre-selected locations are taken into account applying a Warehouse Location Model in order to determine an optimal recycling system with several locations. The approach is applied to a case study of recycling large household appliances in Spain. Recommendations for installation and operation of the recycling system are derived.

Keywords: WLP; PROMETHEE; Spain; Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment; WEEE Directive; European Union; EU directives; large household appliances; case study; strategic planning; recycling systems; electronic products; multi-attribute decision making; warehouse location modelling; environmental management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2008.017510

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2008 Vol.8 No.4, pp.405 - 425

Published online: 13 Mar 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article