Planning the location of facilities to implement a reverse logistic system of post-consumer packaging using a location mathematical model

A Systematic Literature Review on Packaging Sustainability: Contents, Opportunities, and Guidelines

The relationship between packaging and sustainability has caused the evolution of literature towards the minimization of environmental damage. The task of packaging professionals is becoming more demanding, as they need to collect information from distinct topics to stay up to date. The aim of this research is to gather information on packaging in the sustainability context to provide a systemic view of the contents, to identify opportunities, and define guidelines for packaging design. A systematic literature review of 472 papers was performed. The first step was a bibliographic search using Pack *, Sustainab *, and eco * as keywords. Secondly, the content analysis revealed the emergence of nine categories grouped in four clusters. These categories and nineteen subthemes were considered research opportunities. Going beyond the coding units of the content analysis, we have used context units to propose (i) the gathering of technical procedures to support the design phases of sustainable packaging; and (ii) the proposition of a framework based on the life cycle stages and design phases. At last, we have provided insights and guidelines that can be useful for packaging professionals.

Reverse logistics system applied to the reuse of iron ore tailings

Iron ore tailings (IOT) from tailings dams cause significant environmental, economic, and social impacts, which has motivated the search for reuse alternatives. In this scenario, the present work uses reverse logistics to size the resources required to reuse the IOT for road infrastructure. A reverse logistics system was modelled to transport the IOT from the tailings dam to a processing plant and then to the construction site of a road. Resource capacity constraints and operational limitations were considered, and the economic feasibility of the system was analysed. Two scenarios for tailings transportation on the dam/plant route were simulated aiming at a cost less than R$ 25 (US$ 6.13) per tonne: (1) trucks; and (2) conveyor belts. The economic feasibility of both scenarios was proven, with scenario 1 presenting the most promising results - a transport distance of 290 km within the established price limit. This methodology can thus be applied to encourage the large-scale reuse of IOT.

Using applied operations research and geographical information systems to evaluate effective factors in storage service of municipal solid waste management systems

One of the important elements of municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system is waste storage service. Residents deal with the system in this stage and the efficiency of waste collection element, the most expensive element of waste management system, relies on the performance of storage service. In this study, the performance of two different models including minimize facilities (MF) and maximize capacitated coverage (MCC) was investigated to find optimal locations for storage stations in Alandasht district located in Mashhad- Iran. Four effective factors including total service coverage, residential engagement, surplus container capacity devoted to each station and the ratio of the standard deviation to the arithmetic mean of solid waste allocated to each station were considered to compare these models. The MF model provided the highest service coverage by proposing 26 stations covering 98.56 percent of total residences. According to 26 stations proposed with MF model, MCC was run with 26, 27, 25 and 24 stations. MCC-27 provided the maximum attendance of residents with 54.47 percent. However, the most economical container distribution to the stations proposed with MCC-24 by presenting the minimum ratio of surplus devoted capacity to total demand, 33.74 percent. Finally, MCC-25 provided better distribution of residents to the storage stations, i.e., the minimum ratio of the standard deviation to the average solid waste devoted to stations, 22.13 percent. service area (SA) analysis applied to MF, MCC-25 and MCC-24 showed more than 60 percent of residences are located between 0 and 100 m walking distance for these analyses.