Reumo
This research aimed to identify in the literature the barriers to Reverse Logistics (RL) of Organic Solid Waste (OSW) for the stakeholder Public entities. The research strategy adopted was a systematic literature review using the Scopus and Web of Science databases, using the PRISMA method. 34 articles were identified and in these, 14 barriers related to public entities. Based on the literature review, the Public Entities stakeholder plays a central role in the reverse OSW channel, as they range from more operational barriers such as “Limited technical knowledge for identification and separation of waste”, to more tactical barriers such as “Lack of urban planning and adequate infrastructure for waste treatment facilities” to more strategic barriers such as “Excessive bureaucracy, due to weak legislative coordination at different institutional levels”.
These barriers, when they exist at a certain level, strategic for example, cause chain barriers at the tactical and/or operational levels. For a territory, when waste management policies that promote the reduction or reuse of organic waste for composting purposes may compromise the availability of waste for energy use (Pour, Webley and Cook, 2018), for example. In this situation, waste management strategies (composting and energy production) are competing for the same resource, which can compromise the availability of waste for both strategies, promoting an operational barrier of unavailability or insufficient waste. In the same way, the lack of planning and adequate infrastructure for organic waste treatment installation, related to the tactical level, as biogas production units (Gebreegziabher et al., 2014; Bong et al., 2017) or composting (Kazuva and Zhang, 2019; Daskal et al., 2022); Mushtaq et al., 2020) cause the barrier, at an operational level, lack of extensive adaptive planning for separating waste at the generating source (Pour, Webley and Cook, 2018), because if there are no waste recovery units, there is no reason to separate them, much less commit generators to this task.
The literature review also showed that the focus of research is on developing countries and that despite their geographic and political differences, they share common barriers. For example, the barrier “Lack of measures that encourage the recovery of waste by interested parties”, which both in Brazil (Siqueira and Assad, 2015) and in Malaysia (Bong et al., 2017) the other stakeholders in the reverse channel are penalized with the lack of encouragement and support from local governments for the development of recovery facilities. Also, the lack of government cooperation in providing financial values for MSW investments may impede the development of sustainable supply chains in Tanzania regarding composting (Kazuva and Zhang, 2019) and in Mexico regarding informal waste collection systems (Carmen-Niño et al., 2023) or even the failure to provide land to expand composting areas in China (Zhang et al., 2016). Logistical costs are also common barriers in South Africa, which faces high costs for accessing inputs and transporting organic waste for urban agriculture (Menyuka et al., 2020) as well as in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Mozambique, which face high transport costs in waste collection due to narrow and unpaved roads (Perteghella et al., 2020).
The orchestrating role of Public Entities in the reverse channel ranges from the regulatory function, through the execution and/or facilitation of RL activities as well as inspection and monitoring functions to evaluate policies and programs. The regulatory function is the primary function, with the aim of ordering activities in the reverse channel and can manifest itself as a barrier when there is excessive bureaucracy due to weak legislative coordination, making it difficult to recover organic waste (Morone, Yilan and Imbert, 2021) or the absence of clear guidelines and frameworks to facilitate and regulate the use of organic waste in urban agriculture (MENYUKA et al., 2020). Second, as an executor, efficient management may not be used to treat organic waste due to inadequate transportation, costs, handling and treatment practices (Xiao et al., 2020; Fereja and Chemeda, 2022) and as an enabler of RL activities, not providing permissions to use land areas for composting expansion (Menyuka et al., 2020) or for waste sorting and separation facilities (Zhang et al., 2016). Third, as a supervisory and control entity to evaluate the RL activities adopted, if the RL activities are not complied with, regulations due to lack of governance and insufficient monitoring (Hettiarachchi et al., 2018), will constitute a barrier to the objectives of waste RL. Finally, Public Entities as orchestrators permeate the educational role they play over other stakeholders in the reverse channel, as, in addition to participation, community knowledge and understanding of the problem of solid waste are crucial (Khamkeo et al., 2021) as well such as the understanding that as generators, they have responsibility for waste. These educational actions need to be orchestrated by municipal authorities, as well as being welcomed by non-profit organizations.
Because barriers are possibly correlated, that is, when they occur at one level it triggers barriers at other levels (strategic, tactical or operational) and due to the functions linked to the role of orchestrator of the reverse channel, the actions emanated by Public Entities need to be integrated so that the objectives of MSW management are achieved and the results of reverse logistics are enhanced.
The results of this study contribute in an original way to the area as this is the first research that identifies and discusses in depth the barriers to RL of organic waste related to public entities, paving the way for empirical research and the development of this field of study. They also contribute in a practical way so that public policies and private sector actions can be addressed in an integrated way to overcome such barriers.