A refine-or-sell decision model for a station with continuous reprocessing options in an electronics recycling center

Electronic product recovery centers face challenging materials separation decisions. They must evaluate the trade-offs between processing costs, holding costs, and fluctuating commodity markets for recovered materials from electronic products. As legislation and landfill costs rise, electronic product recovery centers need quantitative tools to evaluate how much processing is optimal. In this paper, the authors present an optimization model for a station with options to refine electronic scrap once or continuously. The model determines at what point materials are refined and at what point they are sold. The authors demonstrate the use of the model for refine-or-sell materials recovery decisions for a case with discarded computers and monitors.