Search results

Plastics waste management is a critical agenda for the global community. Recycling is the most important strategy option for recovering plastics wastes. This study aims to review reverse logistics (RL) implementation practices and conceptualizing it to the plastic recycling system.

The paper is organized after evaluating the studies related to plastics waste recycling and analyzing the available frameworks to use RL as a strategic tool.

The paper has investigated that previous research on RL implementation focused on a few stages of RL activities and did not include the most important issues. However, for successful RL implementation, taking into account the whole stage and including the most important factors is very important. To elaborate on this finding a new conceptual framework is developed.

The paper is fully based on literature review and international reports. The developed framework is required for further empirical validation in the plastics sector.

The paper has considered the important issues and the applications of those factors that can improve plastics recycling performances.

This study can enhance the active involvement of main actors (plastics producers, users, municipal and recyclers) in the plastics recycling system.

This paper deliberates on how RL can be conceptualized and implemented in plastics recycling systems in considering the most important factors for plastics recycling.

The effects of the Internet on the long‐term viability of buyer/seller exchange relationships is examined within the US plastics industry. The author poses two possible scenarios: the Internet causes firms to be “drawn apart” due to the decrease of switching costs of changing suppliers; or firms become “closer” due to the communication efficiencies gained from the technology. A series of regression models lends support to the latter hypothesis. Along with this analysis, comparisons are made between Internet users and non‐users with regard to company size and position in the firm. Findings also show that Internet users tend to communicate with suppliers and customers more frequently using traditional modes than non‐users.

On completion of the case, the students will be able to understand the concept and importance of sustainability; understand how triple bottom line can help a company make a transition towards sustainability; evaluate the tensions between the three pillars of triple bottom line approach; assess the role of circular economy model as opposed to the conventional linear model in the transition of a company towards sustainability; and understand the sustainability challenge in an emerging market context.

Despite the promising growth potential of the plastics industry in India, it is faced with sustainability challenges owing to its detrimental impact on environment. To preserve the environment and human kind, the government made a bold announcement in 2018 to eliminate the use of highly polluting single-use plastics (SUPs) in the country. Amid this growing sustainability threat against plastics and the fall in demand of SUP items, this case illustrates that Sandip Patel, the plant manager of Cello Plastotech, is entrusted by the CEO with the responsibility of adopting a triple bottom line approach encompassing its three pillars, that is, people, planet and profits, as a response to the sustainability challenge. The strategic rethinking towards adopting sustainability required Patel to face the challenge of striking a balance between the three pillars of triple bottom line while also taking some valuable insights for plastic waste management from the circular economy model. While making a transition to sustainability, he needed to evaluate different options like stopping the manufacture of SUPs and look for alternatives, use of biodegradable raw material which was expensive but environment friendly or manufacture such durable plastic products that would replace SUPs.

The case is aimed at teaching the topic Triple Bottom Line approach in the courses of business strategy and sustainability in under-graduate and post-graduate level courses in the discipline of Management. It can also be used as a supplementary reading in courses like Corporate Social Responsibility and Circular Economy. In emerging markets’ context, these topics are generally taught to MBA students in courses like strategic management, sustainable business and business ethics.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Specialization has enabled one plastics manufacturer to compete against such industry titans as du Pont, GE, and Monsanto.

In research on the circular economy, business models are often taken as a focal point since their essential functions are both to create value and to capture part of that value. This chapter investigates whether and how circular business models can be “opened up” to creating and capturing value by utilizing a firm’s main asset not only in its own operation but also in other firms’ businesses. We hereby take the perspective of producing companies which face various challenges over the entire product life cycle and empirically analyze a case of five companies which are part of a joint innovation toward circularity in the plastics industry. Building on a grounded theory approach, we propose a new framework for companies which combines insights about open business models with circularity. When moving toward circularity, producing companies are advised to expand their dyadic perspective of suppliers, on the one hand, and customers, on the other hand, to a network perspective and open their business models.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new model in which the interrelationship between the barriers can be determined that hinder the implementation of effective recycling processes in the plastic sectors of India.

Today manufacturers do not want their input to be deemed waste and subsequently be discarded, so their efforts and resources have been channeled into the development of efficient recycling methods. However, there are several barriers hindering the implementation of effective and efficient recycling. In this paper several of the most influential barriers are taken into consideration and implemented in the interpretive structural modeling.

The results divided the barriers into four clusters and identified the weak and strong barriers and implemented relationships between them.

Globally plastic waste has been steadily increasing. Recycling plastic has received much attention because many companies are using it as a strategic tool to serve their customers and to generate good revenue, but there is a lack of effective recycling units in India. The work of this paper and its results will be helpful in the implementation of an effective and efficient recycling unit for the plastic sector.

The recycling process can be improved by avoiding barriers of PLASTIC recycling.

In this paper, the plastic industries of India are studied and analyzed, and the barriers are found.

The purpose of this paper is to review the new trends in plastic additives, with special focus on developments in food packaging materials.

Phenomenological research has brought awareness and increased insight into the role of various plastic additives on the packaging of foods. The approach is based on the current trends and the industrial protocols for the additives used in plastic polymer processing for the development of food packaging materials.

Packaging of foodstuffs is a dynamic process which continually responds to the changes in supply and demand which are the result of adaptations to the varying demands of the consumer, changes in retail practices, technological innovations, new materials and developments in legislation, especially, with respect to environmental concerns. A wide range of additives is available for enhancing the performance and appearance of food packaging, as well as improving the processing of the compound. Polymer additives are important areas of innovation for packaging materials.

The paper reviews and summarizes the recent developments in the functionality of different additives, along with their advantages and disadvantages, currently being used to enhance the properties of food packaging materials that can positively influence the environment within the packaging for the increased demand for raw or processed foods.

Presents an update on paints for plastics, including automotive industry components. Answers the questions: why do we need to paint plastics? What are the markets for them? What type of paint is used for which type of plastic? What are the typical problems and how can they be overcome?

The purpose of this paper is to address a problem that is commonly faced by manufacturing companies in the plastics industry, where large and different batches of freshly produced units need to be unloaded from the injection‐moulding machines and relocated, using automation.

The new solution is reached through a formal design approach, including a function analysis, a product design specification, a quality function deployment exercise, the generation of a number of conceptual solutions, and concept evaluation using morphological charts, failure mode and effect analysis and a decision matrix.

A single modular end effector that can be easily reconfigured for a large variety of moulds has been developed. The results are also extrapolated to more general applications where an end effector is required to carry out simultaneously several different but well‐defined functions in the presence of high variety.

The critical decision that often needs to be made in industry, between flexibility and reconfigurability, is discussed. It is shown that when batch sizes are large, the penalty incurred in reconfiguration time is well offset by gains in simplicity, reliability and lower cost.

The company involved in this case study will achieve significant savings in costs and in storage space, since it will no longer need dedicated gripping devices for its different products.

This paper demonstrates the application of a formal design and development approach to arrive at a novel reconfigurable solution to a common parts handling problem in industry.