Coupling reverse logistics and dynamic modeling for waste management: a food service provider case study

• Published in: Clean technologies and environmental policy Vol. 25; no. 6; pp. 1857 - 1870
• Main Authors: Lagarda-Leyva, Enesto A., Morales-Mendoza, Luis Fernando, Segura-Campos, Maira Rubí, Bojorquez-Alvarado, Ana L., Romero-Guzmán, Miryam P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biofuels; Case studies; Composts; Dynamic models; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental management; Environmental policy; Food; Food industry; Food service; Graphical user interface; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Industrial wastes; Labor process; Logistics; Original Paper; Raw materials; Resource management; Reverse logistics; Sensitivity analysis; Sustainable Development; System dynamics; Waste management; Waste recycling; Technological solution; Business opportunities; Modeling; Graphical interface
• ISSN: 1618-954X; 1618-9558
• DOI: 10.1007/s10098-023-02474-7

Industrial waste generation is proportional to the demand and the consumption of goods and services because industries need to increase the raw material to satisfy this demand, increasing their waste. The production process generates waste as undesirable output; sometimes, this waste is very significant, as in the case of the food service providers industry. In this context, this work aims to propose a methodological framework to transform this waste into co-products and generate business opportunities considering the sustainable development goals proposed in the UN 2030 agenda. The methodology merges reverse logistics and system dynamics principles to propose a seven-stage procedure: (i) distribution process analysis, (ii) description of variables and parameters, (iii) causal loop diagram construction, (iv) Forrester diagram creation, (v) simulation, (vi) scenario construction through sensitivity analysis and (vii) GUI. Graphical User Interface development. The case study addressed is a food service provider company located in Sonora, Mexico. The results show that the waste can be used as raw material and generate business opportunities with a considerable profit margin, e.g., if waste reuse rate is 35%, it means that these wastes can be used in manufacture of biofuel (11 k/month–$35 k), compost (7.5 ton/month–$13.1 k) and soap (1.96 k/month–$69.6 k). Systems dynamics can provide technological solutions for the application of reverse logistics within an organization, considering environmental policies (waste management). Graphical abstract Reverse logistics + dynamic modeling