Economic and environmental assessment of different reverse logistics scenarios for food waste recovery

Abstract

This paper proposes an economic/environmental evaluation of several reverse logistics scenarios for collecting packaged food waste from the retail chain of Emilia-Romagna region (Italy), shipping it to a set of distribution centres for storage and to a treatment facility for reprocessing, with the aim to divert it from disposal of in landfill sites to alternative channels. The economic analysis employs a theoretical model developed in a previous study, which determines the optimal number of facilities in the network and the routing of vehicles that will visit the retail stores to collect the wasted food, returning the total logistics cost as output. Compared to the previous study, in this paper the real location of the stores is taken into account in the assessment. An environmental analysis is also carried out using the life cycle assessment methodology. The results show that collecting the whole amount of wasted food, although expensive in terms of transport cost, is the preferable option in environmental terms.