Closed-Loop Supply Chains

82 ◾ Closed-Loop Supply Chains

5.3.1.1 Papers with Case Studies

One of the bulky materials that occupy signicant landll space is disposed car-

pet. For example, in 1996, 1.6 million tons of carpet was disposed of annually in

Western Europe (Louwers et al., 1999). is motivated the establishment of carpet

recycling networks in Europe and North America. e current recycling technol-

ogy allows for economic recovery of synthetic bers from collected carpet waste.

Louwers et al. (1999) present a planar location model to determine the best loca-

tions and capacities of regional carpet recovery centers incorporating reprocessing

and transportation costs. Focusing on a U.S. application, Real et al. (2004) make

an explicit attempt to capture the ...