Reverse logistics network design: An application for recycling

At the present time, economic, environmental and legal regulations effect the manufacturers to be responsible for used products to keep on recycling, and these developments have led to the emergence of the concept of reverse logistics. Collection of used products from customers with reverse logistics, and then inspection and classification activities are a part of the structure can be formed to carry out a variety of recycling activities. Recycling operations involve collecting and totally remanufacturing or dismantling the product at the end of their product life cycle to recover the basic commodities of the product. In packaging waste recycling, activities are important for business to get raw materials of economic value and creating an alternative to landfill waste disposal costs savings can be achieved.In this study, reverse logistics network is designed to ensure recycling of packaging waste. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality manage the packaging waste managing plan and in this study reverse logistics network design model is about this plan. In this model, within the district of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, mixed packaging waste are collected and sent to the collection and separation facilities, for separating paper, plastic, metal, glass and garbage, after seperation wastes are shipped to the recycling facilities and the waste storage sites. In the model, decisions are about the places where collection and separation facilities will be lay out, and the quantitiy of waste how much waste will be shipped from collection sites to collection and separation facilities and how much paper, plastic, metal, glass and garbage waste will be shipped from the collection and separation facilities to the recycling facilities and the waste storage sites.Aim of the model is cost minimizing and minimum number of collection and separation facility. The model is applied to four different scenarios. The results are interpreted, and network design alternatives were developed in the scenario.