Integrated fruit waste management through a dynamic reverse logistics network using real-time data and machine...

Deterioration is an integral part of perishable products like fruits and vegetables with a vital impact on sustainability in this sector. Products may be wasted in different supply chain stages including in retailers, transportation, and even at consumers' homes. So, comprehensive waste reduction, recovery, recycling, and disposal strategies are utilized by this research to minimize the total wasted products across the reverse logistics of fruits while optimizing profit and social objectives. The quality of the product deteriorates over time into four grades of quality and the expected shelf life in a specific grade of quality changes over time. The returned products can be processed and transformed to one of three types of new products regarding the quality of the returned products. So, returning the products at which quality and returning time is crucial. In this research, two types of real-time data related to the shelf life for each quality grade are gathered including the new shelf life estimation received by Internet of Things technology for the existing products at retailers and updated prediction for those provided by Artificial Intelligence. This study integrates joint dynamic pricing with a new dynamic reverse logistics structure into a novel real-time optimization model, leveraging both types of real-time data. To validate the proposed model, a case study of a fruit supply chain in Canada is conducted. The results demonstrate the significance of real-time data and the effectiveness of the proposed model in enhancing the sustainability of the supply chain.