Circular Economy, Recycling & Remanufacturing worked example

End-of-Life Processing Cost at 110% share of units requiring paid processing: a worked example

Push share of units requiring paid processing up to 110% and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. a team needs to budget EOL obligations, compare processors, or price stewardship fees for a EOL program, product family, or compliance reporting period

The inputs for this scenario

  • End-of-life units received for processing: 7,800 units (unchanged)
  • Disassembly and disposal cost per unit: 4.9 $ / unit (unchanged)
  • Share of units requiring paid processing: 110 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 100)
  • Fixed compliance, permitting, or line setup cost: 8,600 $ (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Variable end-of-life processing cost = end-of-life units processed × processing cost per end-of-life unit × units requiring paid end-of-life processing) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 50,642 total end-of-life processing cost for total end-of-life processing cost, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 6.49 $ / piece for processing cost per received unit.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 42,042 $ for variable end-of-life processing cost.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 8,600 $ for fixed compliance, permitting, or line setup cost.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where share of units requiring paid processing sits at 100% and the headline result is 46,820 total end-of-life processing cost, this scenario comes in 8.16% above the baseline at 50,642 total end-of-life processing cost.
  • It computes the total cost to process a batch of end-of-life units by combining variable per-unit processing cost (scaled by the share needing paid handling) with fixed compliance and setup overhead. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Total end-of-life processing cost: 50,642 total end-of-life processing cost (headline result)
  • Processing cost per received unit: 6.49 $ / piece
  • Variable end-of-life processing cost: 42,042 $
  • Fixed compliance, permitting, or line setup cost: 8,600 $

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live End-of-Life Processing Cost calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.