## 1 Introduction  
The solar photovoltaic (PV) market is growing quickly, and predictions show that new PV systems installations reached 98 GW in 2019, pushing the cumulative solar capacity to 586 GW globally [1]. Considering a circular economy perspective, the improvement in solar energy usage is essential [2; 3; 4]. Still, the increase in PV installations creates a substantial amount of new waste, which may account for approximately 8.0 million tons per year by 2030 [5]. Sustainable technologies such as PV depend on the constant progress of their end-of-life (EoL) management [6; 7]. Recycling is one of the sustainable EoL management options that adds to the environmental benefits and can further enhance market support for solar energy. Various approaches are available in the literature to recycle different PV technologies [6; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14]. PV Cycle, for example, has a waste management program for solar PV technologies in Europe [15]. In 2016 their process of recycling PV achieved a record recycling rate of 96% for c-Si PV modules (mass fraction of solids recycled), which surpasses the currently required European Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive percentage of recycled fraction. The process begins with the removal of the cables, junction box, and frame from the PV module. Then, the module is shredded, sorted, and separated. The separation of the materials allows them to be sent to specific recycling processes associated with each material. Another example is the full recovery end of life photovoltaic (FRELP) process, which is an industrial-scale process that combines mechanical and chemical approaches that aims to recover 100% of the materials from the EoL PV modules in an economically viable way [9; 16; 17]. There are also examples of cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) module recycling processes [18; 19; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24]. First Solar developed a recycling process for CdTe modules, which includes management of the collection and transportation of EoL modules to the recycling center [25]. Their process recovers 90% of the glass for use in new products and 95% of the semiconductor materials for use in new solar modules. Another example is the pilot project funded by the Japanese Government via the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Their recycling process can be used for Si or CIS, and it is based on pyrolysis of the polymers (primarily the encapsulant) in a furnace. The process starts with the removal of the frames and the backsheet foil before the thermal process begins. After that, for CIS only, the EVA resin is burned, and the CIS layer is grated. For the c-Si modules, the semiconductor materials are recovered, as is the glass cullet [26]. Recycling of PV modules may create public concerns about hazardous materials in PV modules which can leach to the environment if they are not correctly handled [19; 27]. Furthermore, the economic feasibility and adverse environmental impacts of long-distance transportation of PV modules at their EoL is a barrier to market penetration of PV recycling technologies [28], but the literature presents very few studies about the transport-related environmental and economic consequences of PV module recycling. For example, [PERSON] presented a feasibility study for recycling thin-film solar cells, including transportation, and concluded that the small quantities and high transportation costs make PV recycling options relatively expensive [27]. It was also highlighted that PV recycling could be technologically and economically feasible if the processes can improve features such as infrastructure, centralized application for recovered materials, as well as ongoing research. [PERSON] et al. [9] published an LCA study following a \"gate-to-gate\" approach of the FRELP recycling process, including the transportation of the PV modules.