Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan;41(1):117-142.
doi: 10.1177/0734242X221105433. Epub 2022 Jul 26.

Extended producer responsibility in developing economies: Assessment of promoting factors through retail electronic firms for sustainable e-waste management

Daniel Faibil  1 , Richard Asante  2 , Martin Agyemang  3 , Michael Addaney  4 , Charles Baah  5
Affiliations

Extended producer responsibility in developing economies: Assessment of promoting factors through retail electronic firms for sustainable e-waste management

Daniel Faibil et al. Waste Manag Res. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

The adoption of the extended producers' responsibility (EPR) principle as a mitigation strategy for e-waste management has gained impetus over the past few years. However, e-waste management in developing economies through retail electronic firms' or producer responsibility organization is still inceptive. This study identified and analysed promoting factors of EPR principle adoption through retail electronic firms in the Ghanaian electronic industry. Through extant literature and stakeholders' perspectives, 15 factors were identified as strategic and operational promoting factors, which were evaluated by experts. Subsequently, the grey Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory technique was used to analyse the data obtained. The outcome of the study suggests that operational factors have more influence than strategic factors to determine the adoption of the EPR principle. In addition, most of the important operational factors tend to be enabled by both push and pull measures by supply chain stakeholders. In the short term, adopting an advanced deposit recycling refund scheme tends to be the most effective elementary operational factor, which can push retailers to adopt the EPR principle. The significant pull elementary factors that need short-term attention include the opening up and creation of new market opportunities for e-companies as well as resilient and effective resources management. The study findings suggest that Ghana's present policy framework is limited for the adoption of the EPR principle by retail electronic firms. The study contributes to identifying promoting factors for adoption of the EPR principle from the perspectives of both the external and internal stakeholders in the electronic industry with emphasis on push and pull strategy.

Keywords: Delphi method; Extended producer responsibility; e-waste management; grey-DEMATEL; retail electronic firms; stakeholders perspective.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The proposed framework of the study.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The categorization of promoting factors based on stakeholders’ perspectives.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Causal dependency diagram among the promoting factors.
Figure D1.
Figure D1.
Causal of sensitivity analysis for case A.
Figure D2.
Figure D2.
Causal of sensitivity analysis for case B.
Figure D3.
Figure D3.
Causal of sensitivity analysis for case C.
Figure E1.
Figure E1.
Sectional representations of promoting factors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adanu SK, Gbedemah SF, Attah MK. (2020) Challenges of adopting sustainable technologies in e-waste management at Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Heliyon 6: e04548. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Agamuthu P, Victor D. (2011) Policy trends of extended producer responsibility in Malaysia. Waste Management & Research 29: 945–953. - PubMed
    1. Agyei-Mensah S, Oteng-Ababio M. (2012) Perceptions of health and environmental impacts of e-waste management in Ghana. International Journal of Environmental Health Research 22: 500–517. - PubMed
    1. Agyemang M, Zhu Q, Adzanyo M, et al. (2018) Evaluating barriers to green supply chain redesign and implementation of related practices in the West Africa cashew industry. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 136: 209–222.
    1. Akon-Yamga G, Daniels CU, Quaye W, et al. (2021) Transformative innovation policy approach to e-waste management in Ghana: Perspectives of actors on transformative changes. Science and Public Policy 48: 387–397.

LinkOut - more resources