Towards the sustainable development of waste household appliance recovery systems in China: an agent-based modeling approach

With the rapid development of the economy and society, the number of waste household appliances in China has increased. Although the scale of China's waste household appliance industry continues to expand, the recovery rate is relatively low compared with developed countries. As waste household appliances are important recycling resources that have potential environmental risks and a high resource value, the effective recovery, recycling and utilization of these appliances are necessary to build a circular economy system, ease environmental crises and realize sustainable development in China. An agent-based model of a waste household appliance recovery system was established in this study by using complex adaptive system theory and agent-based modeling method. The simulation of agents' behavior and scenario analysis were performed using this model, and the results were analyzed to study the evolutionary trends of the industry under different policy scenarios. Based on the exploration and interpretation of the optimal scenario, policy suggestions are proposed for different parts of the system.