**4.2 Purchasing for donation**

To encourage the reuse of DRS items, we propose a "Purchasing-as-Donation" marketing strategy for selling relief material surplus in a cause-related marketplace. These organizations or individual consumers, retailers, traders, original suppliers, and donors. For every relief surplus item sold out, the income is calculated as a cash donation to the DRS management. In addition to the attractive price, the market is also promoted by the environment-friendly concept and social responsibility. The original suppliers who buy back their products and send them to other markets can also be rewarded by further purchasing for further DRS inventory. Traders buying and reselling these DRS products are offered further business opportunities in the future.

This strategy takes advantage of other reusing choices in many ways. Putting aside the economic value that purchasing-as-donation offers, it enables the DRS management to get access to the people in need with alternative sources, not limited to the population supported by aid programs. By using monetary transfers, the proportion of inappropriate deliveries would be controlled at a minimum level.

The purchasing-as-donation model also has positive impacts on inventory operations management. As the poor inventory management is always to be blamed for the enormous waste of relief supplies, DRS managers are forced to take good care of their relief inventories before transferring them to the cause-related consumers. On the other hand, selling relief surplus products by using online platforms and information technology almost eliminates the searching cost for potential recipients, and more importantly, discloses the inventory and donation information to the public in case of corruption.

To support the purchasing-as-donation strategy, it is important to set up related policies and regulations. These policies and regulations involve the various rights of personal or organization donations, rules for international rescue teams, reallocation of donated items or cash, and other aspects. Another important support task is to coordinate other markets, including the international market and related recycling companies to fully recapture the value of the surplus materials.
