Review Reports - Towards a Smart E-Waste System Utilizing Supply Chain Participants and Interactive Online Maps

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors,

your paper "Towards a smart e-waste reverse system ..." adresses e-waste collection as am important part of a recycling system for e-waste. Smart technologies, as described in the paper have merits and can be a useful contribution.

This paper describes a concept where delivery is combined with e-waste collection. However I am missing evidence that such an approach can work. Low cost and reduction of CO2 emission are claimed, but data or experience for this is missing. Other important issues like contamination of the delivered good with waste materials (eg. fluids from end-of life equipment), safety issues (eg. transportation of damaged Li batteries) and the potential deprovation of valuable materials (PCBs) are not mentioned at all.

I think this is more a working paper than a research article, which requires more facts and data.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to revise the recycling-1022120 entitled “Towards a smart e-waste reverse system based on involving local delivery services and interactive online maps use”. We are pleased to resubmit for publication this revised article. We would like first to thank the two Reviewers for their succinct yet constructive criticisms in improving this paper. Indeed, the manuscript has certainly benefited from their insightful comments and meaningful suggestions to enhance its quality.

The present cover letter includes specific responses - point-by-point - to each reviewer’s comments and suggestions. You will also find two versions of the revised manuscript: one with changes visible highlighted in red font (showing clearly the changes made in response to the comments, as required), and one "clean" version.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding our submission and to respond to any further questions or comments you may have,

Thank you again for your time and consideration,

Sincerely,

The authors

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper presents an interesting approach to increase e-waste collection rates in developing countries. The paper develops a smart reverse system of e-waste from end-of-life electronics holders based on the involvement of local delivery services. According to the literature review, there is an available unused transport potential for e-waste collection in any city at local delivery enterprises. The paper proposes to use them as potential mobile collection points without significant deviation from the planned routes being able to collect and deliver EoL or obsolete EEE using interactive online maps of users’ requests to the local specialized e-waste processing factories.

It would be advisable to discuss the implications of including additional pick-up and deliveries orders on an online basis, considering capacity restrictions of the vehicles. As a matter of fact, it could often happen that the additional orders should be put off, thus reducing its advantages over traditional waste collection systems.