Reverse Logistics Related to Waste Management with Emphasis on Developing Countries—A Review Paper

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the state of art of reverse logistics and current status of waste management problems with special emphasis on developing countries. Logistics activities have been practiced and played a fundamental role in the global economic development for over 5,000 years. It has then been transformed into different logistics branches and elaborates the emergency of reverse logistics as one of the most important. The paper presents the evolution of logistics into reverse logistics and how it relates to waste management both in the developed and developing world. Reverse logistics is a relatively new phenomenon in the research area which is mainly referring to damaged goods, the take back of products that should be returned to the manufacturers or distributors. Reverse logistics is relatively more practiced in an organized way in the developed world than in the developing countries in that the latter provided less value additions on reversed products.