A Case Study of Recycle Based Reverse Logistics Cost Minimization

Abstract

If emergence and historical development of the word “logistics” is examined, it can be seen that it is more focused on activities through the process that starts from the raw materials stage to the delivery of the products to the consumers. This is due the usage of the word “logistics” only for traditional (advanced) logistics application for several years. However changing environmental conditions such as producers’ responsibilities related with the product not restricted to the sales, collection of products after consumption by the end consumers and bringing them to a condition in which they can be reused within the supply chain, nature consciously disposal of one’s which cannot be recovered, prevention of waste and building infrastructure for sustainable development have induced the emergence of “reverse logistics” besides traditional logistics that ignores recovery. In other words logistics has become a broad concept that covers also reverse logistics applications which corresponds to recovery of products. Reverse logistics applications include collection of used or recycled products, reprocess of those products and redistribution after reprocess. Whichever recovery style is appropriate for companies and products, these activities are performed for every recovery application. Likewise recovery may be in the form of bringing the product back to the production with various applications such as recycling, repairment, reproduction, renewal or cannibalization of the product. The differences between those lie in the way of reprocessing of the products are subject to recovery. The aim of this study, being limited to recycling which is a type of recovery, is optimization of reverse logistic cost for a waste collection facility employing linear programming model. Models applied within this context induce an improvement on cost at the rate of 6.9%.