Scheduling selective disassembly for plastics recovery in an electronics recycling center

High-value engineering plastics demand in the electronics industry reaches nearly 1.5 million tons annually. Since these plastics are derived from nonrenewable petroleum-based resources, research for scheduling of plastics-to-plastics recycling is warranted. Recent research has shown the feasibility of extending the reverse electronics supply chain, driven primarily by remanufacturing and metals recovery, to include plastics recovery. The extended recycling process adds plastic cover disassembly for separation of the majority of the plastics in electronics prior to bulk processes for metals separation. In anticipation of recovered plastics demand for product housings, we develop scheduling rules for plastics demand-driven disassembly processes and test them in a discrete event simulation model of a recycling center. In our experimental design, we vary disassembly scheduling rules, the mix of end-of-life electronic product arrivals, and plastics demand. Although the mix of incoming products has a significant impact on plastics recovery rate, our results demonstrate that the application of plastics demand-driven or supply-based disassembly scheduling rules perform similarly in maintaining metals and plastics throughput from consumer electronics.