sdg12-bsh provider logoChallenge completed

Rethink logistics for take-back systems

Key aspects of sustainable consumption and production are the reuse or repurposing of old products and materials to contribute to a circular economy. Together with BSH you will develop novel approaches to “sustainabilize” their reverse logistics program across Europe, which will help to collectively drive a more sustainable economy.

To support you in your idea and team generation process, you have the opportunity to participate in one of our digital Design Thinking Workshop - register here or find more information here.

Knowledge Base

Affected Stakeholders

The main stakeholder is BSH, who wants to increase her impact on the circular economy. However, many other stakeholders are involved in the collection of end-of-life appliances: end-users, retailers, collection points, collective takeback schemes, scrap dealers, recyclers, preparation for reuse organizations, repairers, authorities etc.

Environment BSH Hausgeräte GmbH (bsh-group.com)

Improving the collection of Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in general, and for this case, ensuring an increased flow of BSH appliances towards BSH for them to be either refurbished (and re-introduced to the market), taken apart for parts harvesting (e.g., to increase the lifetime of other appliances through repair with refurbished parts) or to be recycled would have a significant environmental impact.

Current efforts

Reverse logistics: combining pickup of waste appliances at the delivery of new appliances to retailers (Belgium)

Product as a service models

  • WeWash (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands)
  • Bluemovement (Netherlands)
  • Papillon (Belgium)

Collaboration with preparation for re-use centers (Belgium, Spain, Denmark)

Takeback through after sales service

Some often the problems we are currently facing with these approaches are:

Transportation of end-of-life or used appliances is different from new ones, e.g., water leakages, no packaging creates risk of damages during transport (i.e., unstable, stacking difficult etc.)