Enhancing Construction and Demolition Waste Reverse Logistics Operations: Addressing Different Regional Challenges

Abstract

Effective reverse logistics operations can ensure that construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is effectively managed, treated, and reused in the value chain, thereby conserving landfill spaces and reducing the economic, environmental, and social impacts associated with waste disposal and extraction of raw aggregates. Nevertheless, reverse logistics operations face several difficulties that differ between countries depending on their development in terms of waste management and treatment. As a consequence, C&DW is either being landfilled or illegally dumped in many parts of the world, and the construction industry’s circular economy potential is not realized. Several critical barriers exist that hinder successful reverse logistics operations in different regions and there is a lack of holistic and dynamic approaches that take into consideration the interdependency between the different stakeholders to enhance waste diversion and achieve a circular economy. As such, the motivation of this research is to find solutions for some of the major impediments to successful reverse logistics operations, including difficulties in waste management plan (WMP) execution and coordination between stakeholders, lack of guidelines for ensuring successful transitioning of developing countries towards reverse logistics operations, and lack of efficient supervision systems for controlling illegal dumping. First, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the critical factors that impact C&DW reverse logistics operations. A web-based regional platform for C&DW reverse logistics was then designed that incorporates the identified factors and serves as a holistic platform for C&DW reverse logistics. The conceptual functionality and data exchange of the proposed platform were laid out and a linear optimization model to be embedded in the latter was formulated to facilitate waste management planning for contractors. The model was applied to a case study and scenario analyses helped examine the impact of regional parameters on the WMP. Since reverse logistics in less developed regions face more diverse issues, a framework to guide these regions towards effective reverse logistics operations was developed. The framework comprised of interpretive structural modeling and a local assessment, which were applied for the case of Lebanon. Following the findings of the framework, GIS was used to demonstrate how C&DW illegal dumping hotspots could be spatially detected based on geographical and topographic attributes. Then, using evolutionary game theory, a decision-aid tool for supervision strategy formulation was developed that allows for comparing different supervision schemes and takes into consideration hotspots. The major contributions of this work include: (1) designing a platform that facilitates interaction and coordination of different stakeholders, and enables governments to enforce, regulate, and oversee waste handling operations conducted at the project and regional levels, and developing an optimization model to facilitate waste management planning for contractors, (2) developing a framework for guiding countries in their transition towards implementing reverse logistics through identifying the deficient factors with highest driving power, and (3) developing a decision support tool that enables governments to select supervision methods and fine-tune the supervision efficiencies and penalties schemes to effectively reduce illegal dumping.