Abstract

Under the current subsidy of China, the dismantle capacity of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has expanded dramatically contrary to a weak investment in green technologies for deep processing. Green technology investment plays a critical role in promoting the recycling rate or the purification degree of the recycled materials, thus benefiting to resources recovery and the establishment of an environmental-friendly society. This study firstly modeled the policy impact of the current subsidy mode and varied subsidy values using decision-making models contingent on maximized project net present values (NPV). The results showed that, under bounded capital, the decision time interval and the improved technology degree are positively correlated with the green technology investment, while the technology achievement time and green technology investment cost correlate with it negatively. Meanwhile, it was found that in certain conditions the current subsidy mode and a lifted subsidy value can impede WEEE processing enterprises’ green technology investment. To promote the green technology investment, three reformed subsidy modes with varied threshold settings are proposed. Their impacts on green technology investment are analyzed using decision-making models contingent on NPV and the static game-theoretic model. All of the proposed reformed subsidy modes can promote the green technology investment. Moreover, the associated threshold setting (the third reformed subsidy) performs better in terms of accommodation of fiscal deficits and fairness regarding assignment of subsidy. Lastly, this paper took the treatment of refrigerator and washing machine in China as case studies for a numerical analysis that delivered visible results.

Graphical abstract