Original equipment manufacturer end-of-life equipment collection metrics

Electronics original equipment manufacturers are coming under increased scrutiny regarding their environmental performance, particularly around the issue of recycling. To address this pressure, companies need metrics that resolve the effectiveness of candidate recycling strategies. Such metrics not only provide guidance on the design and operation of recycling systems, but also serve to communicate the effectiveness of efforts to regulators and nongovernmental organizations. A methodology for a set of robust metrics is presented, designed to allow for comparison between companies. These metrics are based on both mass-based recycling rates normalized by present sales and sales based on product lifetime, along with value-weighted recycling rates that can correlate to environmental performance. These metrics provide insight on the performance of end-of-life electronics collection programs and how they might be compared to recycling of other waste streams, such as municipal solid waste.