Implementation of a Recycling System in PG Turkey Using a Two-Stage Approach for Network Design and Vehicle Routing

Abstract

Sustainability has become an inevitable concept for companies in the modem world. Consequently, converting used products to secondary raw materials and incorporating them into the recycling process is becoming important for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. These products constitute an indispensable part of our daily lives and have high consumption rates. Procter and Gamble (P&G) is a worldwide FMCG corporation, specialized in different product categories. Sustainability is a crucial component in P&G’s success in this highly competitive sector, and environmental concerns include recycling of materials. This study aims to design a recycling system for P&G’s used product packages, and a pilot study will be implemented in Istanbul’s European side. The two-stage approach will cover network design of recycling bin locations and vehicle routing problem of recycling trucks. The first stage will start with a survey for collecting quantitative data on consumers’ recycling habits. This intends to identify the consumers’ main reasons behind participating in such a recycling activity, and to support the motivation of the study. Analytical Hierarchy Process will be employed to select the primary location types (Migros, CarrefourSA, municipalities, etc.) at which the recycling containers will be placed. Coordinates of location types above a certain priority value will then be input to a clustering model to determine the design of the recycling bin network. The second stage will handle the vehicle routing problem within one of the clusters obtained from stage 1. Its objective is to find routes that minimize total distance travelled while collecting recycled products from container locations. Both stages incorporate mixed-integer linear programming models, which will be solved using GAMS/CPLEX. Finally, scenarios having different recycling rates will be analyzed. It is worthwhile to note that, the proposed methodology can be implemented in all of the clusters, as well as, in the Asian side of Istanbul.