The growing population in the world affect the increase of level consumption, this leads to a decline of natural resources while the amount of used products continue to grow (Kilic, Cebeci, and Ayhan 2015). Rapid changes on the technology is a factor due to the problem mentioned, since the lifecycle of products decreases due to the technology changes. This indicates that new products will be produced, and the amount of waste produced will increase (Pedram et al. 2017).
The problem is negative to the environment, and relevant approaches is necessary to deal with it. Reverse logistics is a common approach used to deal with this problem and is defined by Rogers and Tibben-Lembke (1999):
“the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost effective flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, finished goods, and related
information from the point of consumption to the point of origin, for the purpose of recapturing value or proper disposal.”
Economic- and social concern make the manufactures aware of minimizing the
environmental impact and energy consumption and state their willingness to reduce the problems the society meets (Choi, Hwang, and Koh 2007). Suggested recovery options is repair, refurbishing, remanufacturing, cannibalization and recycling (Thierry et al. 1995).
Figure 5 below is presented to give the reader an understanding of the supply chain for materials, and the process of direct logistics and reverse logistics. The process for direct logistics is from raw material to consumption of the material, while the reverse logistics covers the product recovery steps reuse, remanufacturing and recycling (Sellitto 2018).
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Figure 5. Typical flows of direct- and revers logistics (Sellitto 2018).
The recovery process of products is about reusing the products that is collected from the consumers, where the plan is to minimize the amount of waste delivered to landfills because of the high amount of greenhouse gas emission that occur from landfills. Table 2 from Eriksson, Strid, and Hansson (2015) shows the amount of greenhouse gas emission produced from the different waste management methods. Remanufacturing is about turning old products into new once by disassembly, refurbishing and replacement operations (Pedram et al. 2017). The recovered parts and products from the process will then be used in the repair, remanufacturing of other products and components and for sale.
The purpose of the recycling of materials is disassembly for separation and processing of materials of used products. Which will minimize the amount of disposal and maximize the number of materials that will be returned back into the production cycle (Gungor and Gupta 1999). The purpose of reuse is to use the materials from the products and
components that have lost their identity and functionality (Choi, Hwang, and Koh 2007).
The rising awareness of food-waste has become more important the resent years due to food shortages for poor people, food quality, and environmental factors (Gustavsson et al.
2011), and by 2050 is it expected to feed the population of nine billion (Parfitt, Barthel, and Macnaughton 2010). Lot of losses of food is occurring due to the food supply chain, this thesis is focusing on the losses that is occurring at the end of the food supply chain which is called the food-waste and relates on retailers and consumers behaviour (Parfitt, Barthel, and Macnaughton 2010).
16 By increased knowledge about the different food-waste management methods and more awareness of the different greenhouse gas emission produced from each of them could affect the consumer’s behaviour. The different food-waste management methods are landfill, incineration, composting, anaerobic digestion, animal feed, and donations (Eriksson, Strid, and Hansson 2015). An analysis is presented to show the differences of the food-waste management methods. Table 2 below shows the results of how much greenhouse gas emission that is produced between the different food types and food-waste management methods.
Table 2. Greenhouse gas emission produced (Eriksson, Strid, and Hansson 2015).
The results performed from the analysis shows that anaerobic digestion and donation is recommended methods for reduction of greenhouse gas emission (Eriksson, Strid, and Hansson 2015). Waste management solutions is mentioned to provide a better
understanding about where the food-waste ends up after collection. RIR is using an anaerobic digestion where the collected food-waste is transported to a biogas plant where the waste is transformed into gas through collecting the gas that arises when the waste is decomposed (RIR 2019b).
Material flows, information flows, and financial flows are three types of flows in reverse logistics that needs an in-depth understanding due to the difficulties of persuading supply chain optimal solutions while preserving the decentralized decision making. The material flows are affected by the quantity, time, and place of returns, and the level of their reuse value. The value of the product can only be known after the dissemble of the product. The information flows are important due to reducing uncertainty in the timing and reusability of the returned products. While financial flows cover such as buy-back clauses, disposal costs, and other end-of-use costs. It could be difficult to sign contracts where the products will be taken back, this is due to the unknown of the quality of the product after use
(Dekker 2004). Use of financial incentives could help to managing the physical return flow (Guide Jr and Van Wassenhove 2001).
17 The review of reverse logistics performs the ideas about the approach and shows the different solution for the recovery process. Developing this approach could help to reduce the increase of new products and reduce the amount of waste produced. Further will the thesis investigate the different collection systems used to collect waste from private households and how this will affect the transportation impact.