Frameworks for reverse logistics and sustainable design integration under a sustainability perspective: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The increase in manufactured products has progressively generated industrial waste and, thus, the post-consumption waste, which is not adequately disposed of. Regulation and sustainability strategies have been considered as a solution to this problem, in which social, environmental and economic gains have been the main goals. Sustainability issues integrated into the main businesses and operations within the supply chain have been considered in all stages of product design to make them more sustainable. Hence, this study aimed to describe the current state of the art regarding Sustainable Design and Reverse Logistics integration, to identify the potential factors that allow for this combination and report the challenges and opportunities by means of a systematic literature review. We elaborated a systematic review protocol, which stated the inclusion and exclusion criteria for selecting publications regarding the integration between Sustainable Design and Reverse Logistics, from 2008 to 2017 and considered ten research questions as guidelines to collect information from the selected papers. Our final sample comprised of 19 papers and we verified that there are several gaps regarding the integration of the two concepts since most of the research considered indirect integration relations and they do not account for Reverse Logistics activities at the end of the product’s life cycle. Therefore, we proposed three frameworks that highlight this integration and expands the Design for Reverse Logistics perspective.