Design and selection of recycling strategy considering consumer preference

With the escalating issue of plastic pollution, exploring suitable post-consumer plastic waste (PCPW) recycling holds significant importance for global environmental protection. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel PCPW recycling platform (PRP) that offers two recycling strategies to improve the recycling level of PCPW. Then, we construct a Stackelberg game model to analyze and compare three recycling strategies, i.e., traditional recycling strategies, only trade-in for cash, and trade-in for cash and for new. Meantime, we consider the impact of consumer preference and government subsidies on recycling strategies. Research finding: (1) The operation of PRP increases the value of PCPW, particularly PRP’s only trade-in for cash has the highest recycling price. (2) PRP’s trade-in for cash and for new can attract more consumers to participate in PCPW recycling under certain conditions. (3) PRP’s only trade-in for cash enables recyclers and remanufacturers to reap greater benefits. To ensure the robustness of our research results, we conduct further analysis to explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CRS) and the hassle cost. The study also provides management implications for promoting PCPW recycling.