Managing plastic waste from agriculture through reverse logistics and dynamic modeling

Agrofood companies in the region of southern Sonora, Mexico, including those in Valle del Yaqui, employ agrochemical products (insecticides, herbicides, fertilizers, adhesives, fungicides) in the production of foods and face the problem of plastic waste management, specifically from the empty containers and packages from the different products used. This paper proposes a reverse logistics model in the tomato supply chain to economically and environmentally assess the collection process and final disposal of the empty agrochemical packages using dynamic hypotheses and scenario assessment. The challenge in the proposal was to create a dynamic model to observe the current behavior with special attention to environmental pollution and its effects on the health of the communities with the greatest exposure. The results show that this proposal is viable following these stages: (1) analysis of the product supply chain; (2) characterization of the production process; (3) preparation of the causal diagram and dynamic hypotheses; (4) construction of the Forrester diagram and equations; (5) simulation and sensitivity analysis; and (6) design of the user interface. The application of the proposed model supports decision making in the organization regarding the use of containers of discarded agrochemicals, with the aim of reducing their environmental impact.

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