A routing and location model to optimise food waste recovery in the retail and distribution phase

This paper presents a routing and location (R&L) model able to help design an efficient reverse logistics channel for food waste, with particular attention to the waste generated at the retail stage of a food supply chain (FSC). The model, developed in Microsoft ExcelTM, is detailed along with its application in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, which is currently the location of a research project aimed at finding alternative ways to recover food waste rather than disposing of it in landfill sites. Several analyses are carried out exploiting the model, to derive some findings about the economic profitability of setting up a reverse logistics channel to recover food waste in the targeted region, and divert it to alternative use. As there are currently no studies that examine the problem of recovering food waste in Italy, this paper is expected to represent an interesting addition to the literature on this issue.