Abstract
This article details the planning, implementation, and assessment of a worldwide electronics packaging take-back system by a key supply chain partner. The take-back system was a financial and environmental tradeoff between reducing cardboard packaging against increased use of ground and water transportation. Through Internet-enabled life cycle analysis, the new system was shown to significantly reduce waste as well as energy and environmental impacts. If such methods were introduced more formally in the electronics industry, $150 million as well as billions of pounds of waste could be saved per year.