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

                                          Nouran Ibrahim¹ , Yomna Sadek¹ , Amin M.El-Kharbotly¹

1-Ain shams University, faculty of engineering.

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.

Paper industry and closed loop supply chain were in the scope of several papers. From the topics discussed in these papers are cost minimization for paper manufacturing and comparing between the usage of recycled fibers and virgin wood pulp, studying the environmental impact of paper industry, comparing the effects of recycling, incineration and landfill on the environment and studying the effects capacity limits in closed loop supply chain.

In this paper, a multi-echelon, multi-product, single facility capacitated closed loop supply chain model for paper industry is introduced. A linear programming model presented to optimize profit of different grades of paper manufacturing. Further, the environmental and social impacts of paper manufacturing are studied based on profit optimization.

The relation between number of workers, sorting cost and the quantity of unsorted waste paper is illustrated in this paper. As the waste cost increases, the supply quantities from waste paper decreases and hence the number of jobs decreases which gives a negative social impact.