Reducing carbon emissions in WEEE reverse logistics: a supply chain perspective on risk and collaboration

The rapid expansion of the electronics market has led to a sharp increase in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), intensifying environmental pressure and carbon emissions associated with inefficient recycling systems. Traditional WEEE reverse logistics are characterized by high energy consumption and low resource recovery efficiency, limiting their contribution to carbon reduction goals. To address this issue, this study develops a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, consumers, and recycling platforms to analyze strategic interactions and system dynamics in low-carbon WEEE recycling. Numerical simulations are conducted to examine the effects of key parameters on equilibrium stability and convergence behavior. The results indicate that appropriately calibrated government subsidies, consumer participation incentives, and platform-level cooperative benefits accelerate system convergence toward a stable low-carbon equilibrium. However, excessive subsidies generate diminishing marginal effects and potential fiscal inefficiencies. Enhancing long-term cooperative benefits and technological efficiency is shown to improve equilibrium stability and carbon performance. This study contributes to the literature by integrating carbon emission considerations into evolutionary game modeling of WEEE reverse logistics and provides managerial insights into mechanism design for sustainable supply chain coordination.