Application of IoT technology for enhancing the consumer willingness to return E-waste for achieving circular economy: A Lagrangian relaxation approach

Poor management of waste electronic and electrical equipment (e-waste) has resulted in serious challenges to the environment and, consequently, to living organisms. Increasing consumer willingness to return household e-waste is a practical solution for better e-waste management. In this paper, for the first time, a circular supply chain network is structured by applying internet of things (IoT) technology to increase consumer willingness to return household e-waste and to manage the network more effectively. For this purpose, we formulate a mixed-integer linear programming model whose objective is to minimize strategic costs (setup costs and IoT deployment costs) and operational costs (transportation costs, costs associated with IoT, and processing costs in centers), simultaneously. In addition, we developed a heuristic algorithm based on Lagrangian relaxation to solve the proposed MILP model. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by comparing its results with GAMS results using eight small-sized simulated problems. Furthermore, eight large-size problems are simulated and solved by the proposed algorithm. Finally, the data of an Iranian knowledge-based company is employed to validate the presented mathematical model and algorithm, and the sensitivity analysis process is used to examine the accuracy of the obtained results.