Leasing and extended producer responsibility for personal computer component reuse

Although extended producer responsibility legislation creates economic incentives for manufacturers to recycle or remanufacture product components, this has proven to be very difficult. Leasing arrangements where the manufacturer sells a service rather than a product might facilitate more cost-effective product take-back. This paper presents a mathematical model for product design that considers leasing programs and their impact on cost, reliability and environmental impact. The optimal combination of new, recycled and remanufactured components over several product lifecycles is determined by maximising a multiattribute utility function for a portfolio of customer market segments.