Designing a Hazardous Waste Reverse Logistics Network for Third Party Logistics Supplier under the Fuzzy Environment

Uncertainty is the important characteristic of the reverse logistics system design due to the dynamic environment and the increasing systemic complexity. This objective of this paper is to present the model and algorithm for third party logistics supplier (3PLS) to design the efficient and effective hazardous waste reverse logistics network under the fuzzy and uncertain environment. We proposed a multi-type hazardous waste, fuzzy multi-objective and capacitated facility location model for 3PLS considering cost-effective and risk-minimizing hazardous waste reverse logistics network. We applied the triangular fuzzy numbers to describe the uncertainty of the disposal quantity of hazardous wastes, accident probability of hazardous wastes and the unit transportation cost in the fuzzy model. To solve the fuzzy model, we firstly converted the fuzzy multi-objective model into two, crisp, single-objective models by combining the goal satisfactory function, ¿-cut theory and extending principle. Then we founded a hybrid genetic algorithm to solve the crisp single objective model. The numerical example shows that the confidence of fuzzy numbers, the goal weighting and the goal satisfactory function affect the decision results, and that the feasibility of the fuzzy model and algorithm for 3PLS to design a hazardous waste reverse logistics network.