The Reverse Supply Chain of E-Waste Management Processes

Discussion of the Results

This study is focused on the collection activity of the reverse supply chain of the WEEE since it represents a critical phase impacting the overall performance.

(1) A first result of this research has underlined that a territorial divide exists in Italy about the e-waste collection rate. In fact, even though the 70% of provinces have moved in the HWC, almost ¾ of these provinces are localized in Northern Italy. Furthermore, even though the provinces in the LWC and MWC states have decreased over ten years, those that still remain in these states are mainly Southern and Central of Italy provinces. This divide is also confirmed by the fact that almost all the provinces of the worst ("structurally blocked") group are located in Southern Italy. It is interesting to underline that such territorial divide could depend on the existence of a socio-economic gap among Southern and Northern provinces. This finding confirms the results of other authors about the Italian territorial divide even though this study shows more detailed evidences at provincial level. On the contrary, the results about the best performers are not confirmed since only one province of this study is consistent with the best performing regions.

Similarly, the divide is confirmed with regard to the Collection Centers. After 10 years, in a context of a general shift towards medium and high states, Southern provinces are more than half of those in the LPC state, although they remarkably decrease in MPC. Even though some positive elements emerge (more southern presence in higher state), the territorial distribution is still uneven. This result is coherent with other research that aims to optimize the distribution of the CCs in the territorial areas. Moreover, the results concerning the presence of a territorial divide in the Italian WEEE collection are also consistent with those of other contributions, even if for a different stream of waste. In fact, Agovino M. et al. highlights that the legislative measures on a separate municipal waste collection in Italy in the period 1999–2011, while increasing collection rates at the national level, do not reduce the gap among provinces of different areas.

Moreover, the transition probability matrix analysis provides an explanation of this divide since it shows the presence of a remarkable steady state condition which mirrors the difficulty to carry out structural investments aimed to increase the CCs. It is possible to claim that this is particularly true for those provinces that, at the beginning of the introduction of a new EU WEEE management system, halfway through the 2000–2010 decade, did not already have a WEEE collection infrastructure.

(2) As for the impact of external legislative events on the WEEE collection performance, a second result emerged from the transition probability matrix analysis. In fact, the matrix shows that the increase of provinces in the HWC state happened in two different periods due to two diverse external events caused by legislative changes (the digital switchover and the entry into force of LD 49/2014). These events shocked the system provoking a rapid positive reaction.

Moreover, we have verified that the first event caused a higher mobility probability toward the best states than the second one. The sole absorbing state for the entire period 2008–2017 was related to the HWC state and worked mainly during the first sub-period under consideration.

(3) A third result highlights the presence of a correlation between the WEEE collection and the CC distribution among provinces. This finding appears to be in line with several research works despite being in different territorial contexts and with diverse methodologies. The correlation value is high for the entire period for all the Italian provinces. Deepening the analysis by groups of provinces, it emerges that Southern provinces have the higher share among those that have invested in the CCs. By exploiting this positive correlation, these virtuous provinces have also raised the collection results. Specifically, according to the empirical results, Isernia, Nuoro and Sassari could represent an important model of the WEEE collection system to imitate. Indeed, in a few years, these Italian provinces of Southern of Italy were able to outperform the WEEE collection target defined by EU. By focusing on each province, we can try to understand the factors that strongly affect their WEEE collection performance in order to consider them in the definition of future measures and initiatives for different Italian provinces. Specifically, it is possible to underline that the main factors are: (i) a wider diffusion of CCs at the provincial level; and (ii) the organization of several events to sensitize citizens to adopt virtuous behaviours.

In fact, Isernia, Nuoro and Sassari in the last several years have strongly improved the network of CCs in the Southern area; specifically, in 2017, they have respectively 17, 21 and 12 CCs for 100,000 inhabitants. This data is very important if we consider that, on average, there are 5 CCs for 100,000 habitants in the Southern of Italy. Additionally, in the considered provinces, several events, initiatives and information campaign were organized in the last few years.

At the same time, more than 1/4 of other Italian provinces (namely Area 2, Group +− and Group +=) were able to improve their collection performance without increasing the number of CCs, but probably by adopting soft information/communication measures affecting the citizens behaviors or by improving the management and effectiveness of the previously established WEEE management system. Moreover, provinces of the different areas are among those not able to improve the WEEE collection, even though they have increased the CCs number (area 3 – Group −+). Thus, they denote management problems (e.g., inefficiencies, decision making faults, etc.). We have also underlined that, in the meantime, the group of best performing provinces comprehend provinces from the three territorial areas, and the worst performing group of collectors is almost entirely made up of provinces in Southern of Italy also showing the worst CCs infrastructure.