Reverse logistics in Malaysia: Investigating the effect of green product design and resource commitment

Abstract

Reverse logistics and green product design are green supply chain management practices that are being implemented to demonstrate firm's commitment to environmental sustainability. The generation of waste from electrical and electronic equipments prompts the viability of product recovery to salvage invested material and energy. Selection of various reverse logistics product disposition options relies on products’ residual value and the accessibility of reusable content for re-entry in forward supply chain. This study explores the effect of green product design and resource commitment on reverse logistics product disposition by employing empirical analysis on 89 returned mail survey received from ISO14001 certified electrical and electronic manufacturing firms in Malaysia. The results indicated that design for disassembly is necessary to harvest valuable inventories from every product disposition options except of disposal whereas design for environment and commitment of resources have slight influence on repair and disposal activities. As the evidences show that green product design and reverse logistics product disposition are interrelated, firms ought to undertake environmentally proactive approaches to generate benefits from resources that are undeservingly discarded as landfill waste.