Design and control of material flow networks for the recycling of WEEE

Treatment and recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) become more and more regulated by laws and directives in several countries. The necessary operations are carried out in recycling networks including redistribution logistics, disassembly facilities as well as treatment, shredding and recovery processes. To support efficient recycling processes by meeting the legal requirements, a research project was carried out at the TU Braunschweig featuring a two level approach of inter-plant network optimization and intra-plant disassembly system simulation. Planning approaches, the applied methods as well as exemplary results will be shown in this paper.