Reverse logistics activities in three companies of the process industry

The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities to recover value from waste in the process industry. Reverse logistics deals with value recovery in industrial processes. The main reverse channels are reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling parts and materials. The motivation of the study is to find which processes in the process industry offer better opportunities to recover value, which would justify further research. The hypotheses are that supply, manufacturing, maintenance, distribution, and post consumption processes offer opportunities to reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling used materials and parts. The research method is the multiple case studies in three companies in the process industry: beverages, packaging, and construction chemicals. The main research techniques were document analysis, meeting with experts and guided visits, and non-participant observation. The study concluded that the combination of channels and processes with higher potential for value recovery are reuse in manufacture and distribution, remanufacturing in maintenance, and recycling in postconsumption. The supply process has little potential for value recovery in the studied cases. Another finding is the relevance of the role played by cooperatives and municipalities in the recycling channel. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.