This invention relates to a method and a system for assisting in the study of the design improvement and the business strategy by quantitatively evaluating the recycle cost and the recycle environmental load commensurate with the method of recycling the waste products varied from one region to another, based on the design information in the design stage of a globally distributed commodity.
A technique for quantifying the cost and the environmental load accrued for recycling a waste product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,500,817 entitled “Design support Method and Apparatus”. This technique, however, quantifies the cost and the environmental load accrued on the assumption that a waste product is processed for recycle by a specified single processing method.
On the other hand, JP-A-2005-165469 entitled “Evaluation Apparatus, Evaluation Method and Program” discloses a technique for evaluation for each strategic place of production by preparing the data including the cost by region/country. In this technique, however, the environmental load and cost of a product for the whole life cycle are evaluated based on a fixed recycle characteristic.
In recent years, rules and regulations obligating the manufacturers and importers to recover and recycle waste commodities have been enacted in many countries and regions of the world. They include the various recycle laws and regulations in Japan, the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) ordinance in Europe (obligating the recovery and recycle of waste electrical equipment), the Waste Electronic Equipment Recycle Law, California (SB20/50) [Senate Bill 20/50] and the product recycle regulations in a plurality of states in U.S.A, the Recycle Law in South Korea and the Waste Electronic Equipment Recycle Law in the mainland China. The enterprises manufacturing and globally distributing commodities are now required to recover and recycle the commodities on global basis. The interpretation of the regulations and the processing techniques or the recycle cost are varied from one country/region to another, and therefore, specific recycle processes carried out in those countries and regions are considerably different from each other. As a result, the cost and the environmental load accrued by the product recycle are also varied from one country/region to another.