Sailing Towards Sustainable Supply Chains: A Multi-Objective Optimization Model for Green Ship Recycling in a Circular Economy

Abstract

In contemporary global trade, the shipping industry is the cornerstone that facilitates the movement of approximately 90% of international commercial goods. However, environmental challenges, particularly in ship recycling, have become increasingly evident. Over the last few years, worldwide attention to the circular economy has grown to overcome the current production and consumption model based on continuous growth and increased resource throughput. By encouraging the adoption of closed-loop production patterns within an economic system, a circular economy aims to improve resource use efficiency by focusing on urban and industrial waste to achieve better balance and harmony between the economy, environment, and society. This thesis aims to fill a significant gap in the existing literature on sustainable supply chains, where the predominant focus over the last two decades has been analyzing the methods and risks associated with ship recycling. Notably, there is a conspicuous absence of studies exploring the integration of circularity into the global ship recycling industry. From the sustainability perspective, there is a pressing need for an effective and efficient recovery process for end-of-life products. A key element in this process is a well-executed disassembly that is vital for enabling reuse, remanufacturing, high-value recycling, and the implementation of other circular strategies. This study bridges this gap by delving deeper into the obstacles encountered by the ship-dismantling industry and deriving a solution that benefits both businesses within the industry and the environment. This thesis introduces a new optimization model for a closed-loop supply chain network for the ship recycling industry, integrating reverse and forward logistics. The solution methodology comprises sophisticated techniques for multi-objective mixed integer programming to minimize cost and carbon emissions across the network towards a sustainable future for ship recycling.