Impact of Management and Reverse Logistics on Recycling in a War Scenario

Abstract

Nowadays organizations search to maximize their profits, particularly with regard to recyclable materials, making new strategies according to several emerging and changing scenarios. Logistics management is an important tool in achieving these goals, serving as a link between the market and the various areas of an organization. It is responsible for managing physical and organizational flows, both within and between organizations. Reverse logistics management of waste is one of the most complex areas in any organization, due to the financial effort needed in the separation and management of all waste, and due to the human resources allocated to those processes. The supply chain management paradigm, due to the emerging conflicts caused by war inducing extreme changes, shows that supply chains have massive difficulties and costs in obtaining raw materials, namely ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Thus, it is important to study the impact of management and reverse logistics on recycling in a “War” scenario, considering a case study from the Alto Minho region. This article’s research has the objective to raise awareness of the possible impacts of improving operations in the context of the recovery and recycling of electrical and electronic equipment through the concept of reverse logistics management. The importance of the recovery of this waste, among others, will necessarily have a great impact on logistics operation and, in particular, reverse logistics. This process includes the collection, separation, storage, reprocessing and reintroduction of electronic waste into the production chains of raw materials and components. With the crisis in production and shortages of semiconductors and raw materials, as is the case with some metals from Russia and Ukraine (exponentially aggravated by the war), this is a credible alternative. This is also relevant to the treatment of waste in landfills, transforming and converting these into biogas, which can be converted into electricity and introduced into the energy network. With this situation we obtain a triple benefit: cheaper electricity, waste treatment, and protection of future generations and the reintroduction of raw materials into production chains; these results are only possible to obtain through reverse logistics management concepts.