The economic downturn has introduced some permanent changes in the behavior of contractors. These changes mainly consist of seeking opportunities to reduce business operating costs. In such circumstances, the most common course of action is traditional “cost-cutting.” However, it turns out that a period of economic slowdown can also be an inspiration for seeking new, yet innovative solutions. These solutions certainly include processes described as the recovery of secondary raw materials. Since the subject of flows in such processes is most often waste, it is not yet possible to introduce simple procedures that guarantee success in this field. However, this area is a boundless plane of possibilities for creating value for companies. It can be compared to a rationally managed farm, where every thing has a value that is appreciated. Such an approach requires the involvement of both the end recipients of the distribution process, i.e., consumers, and all other logistics entities in the supply chain. Thanks to the efficient organization of logistics processes, it will be possible to effectively collect raw materials for recycling. An opportunity is provided by the development of a new field – recovery logistics. Developing a waste life cycle within the framework of research into this area would be the beginning of creating the possibility for professional companies to develop standard, repeatable solutions that comprehensively treat waste management in companies, which could be implemented on a mass scale in enterprises.
Recycling plants are also part of the supply chain
Behavioral economics studies consumer behavior and finds a lack of rationality in the decisions they make. This allows for the search for probable scenarios of conduct in the economy. The very significant influence of the emotional factor on the implemented processes is increasingly emphasized. This approach explains, in a sense, the lack of involvement of supply chain participants in recovery processes, even though these processes are associated with specific benefits for companies cooperating in one logistics chain. Theoretically, everyone is sensitive to environmental protection problems, declares commitment and a desire to contribute to its improvement. In practice, everyone performs their daily duties without being able to find time for additional activities, such as, for example, waste segregation. In the economy, logistics supply chains do not take into account processes other than those aimed at the traditional creation of value added for the customer, for which the customer will pay a higher price. Will any of us pay more for a product because it is ecological? In everyday life, besides declaring a desire to protect nature, in practice, we have so much to do that there is no time left for waste segregation. Every reason is significant: lack of space for segregation, improper location of containers, lack of trust in waste collection companies – after all, it will all end up in a landfill anyway. And the environment in which we live is a closed system. Nature will not improve its state as a result of declarations by entities responsible for polluting it. There is waste, it must be collected and sent for recycling in such a way that the packaging life cycle balance is zero. How can declarations be transformed into real actions?
First of all, one must realize the coexistence of responsible entities in one system. The logistics tools indicated by the theory of supply chain management easily allow for outlining the division of roles in caring for the flow of raw materials in the economy. However, the traditional supply chain scheme does not include entities in the waste management sector, which are units that would take care of the flow of residues after the product and service distribution process. Their inclusion in the implemented logistics processes is a source of mutual benefits and a way to implement the idea of environmental protection by industry in a way that allows for sustainable development. This is possible thanks to the value inherent in waste, which constitutes a secondary raw material. The quality of this raw material, and at the same time its value, depends on how it was processed in the logistics processes implemented by supply chains. The ability to systematize and manage these processes will obviously increase the value of this raw material, which, in light of rising costs and formal-legal requirements related to waste storage, will initially be a way to solve the inconvenient problem of waste, and in the long term will be a source of benefits for the supply chain. This situation is schematically illustrated in Figure 1.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2009.