Study of sustainability of a paper recycling supply chain based on profit optimization

Abstract

In the last few decades, recycling and closed loop supply chain became very important research topics due to their economic and environmental impacts. Paper recycling is one of the most important industries as it saves natural resources as trees , saves production energy and landfill space. A multi echelon, multi-product, single facility capacitated closed loop supply chain model is proposed in this paper. A linear programming model is presented to optimize profit in a capacitated paper manufacturing supply chain producing different paper grades. Further, in this paper the environmental and social impacts are studied based on profit optimization at different production capacities and different waste costs.