The Development Role of Customers in the Reverse Logistics of Industrial Waste

Abstract

Waste management in large companies is becoming increasingly important. Waste resulting directly or indirectly from production process has very different values, importance, and characteristics, all of which need to be properly processed. The lack of sufficient processors to deal with a wide range of wastes has been shown to limit the sustainability levels of this reverse logistics chain. Thus, this research aims at evaluating the conditions for the development of a waste customers chain of large industrial companies. This research builds on theories and studies such as the Theory of Planned Behavior and the approach to Supplier Development, hitherto used upstream to be now applied downstream. The research is based on the primary data of a large industrial company, the survey of environmental legislation for some types of industrial waste, interviews with environmental agencies and other important stakeholders in the structuring of this logistics chain. The results show there are still no consolidated logistic chains for the industrial waste market. The following are the factors and recommendations for the industrial waste logistics to become more comprehensive and sustainable.