McDonald and Pearce [87] analyzed the existing recycling
protocols for the five major types of commercialized PV materials, including copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), cadmium telluride (CdTe), amorphous silicon (a-Si), poly-crystalline silicon (p-Si) and mono-crystalline silicon (c-Si). The total profitability is defined as the sum of profit from reselling glass and semi- conductor materials (Pt) and disposal cost (D) minus the recycling cost (C). As shown in Table 5, the economic motivation to recycle most PV modules is unfavorable without appropriate policies PV module. The initial cost of landfill disposal for all five solar mod- ules is lower than the cost of recycling the modules, which will still make landfill more favorable than recycling for companies with short-term thinking even if the recycling is profitable overall. Based on the findings, the need to regulate for appropriate energy and environmental policy in the PV manufacturing industry par- ticularly for PV containing hazardous materials is discussed. The results demonstrate the need to encourage producer responsibility not only in the PV manufacturing sector but also in the entire energy industry