Towards inverse production life cycle design: a simulation tool linking mass products recycling to environmental legislation and market

Recycling costs of mass products depend on the technology adopted, size of plant, quantity being recycled, constraints imposed by environmental legislation on process and output (materials, components and energy recovered). The value of output depends instead on market factors. To obtain a profitable recycling process the relationship between: products to be recycled, technology, plant size, output, legislation and market must be known. Consequently, providing a tool embedding such a relationship would enable the various partners - from legislators to companies, to research people - to act in order to efficiently and effectively implement the cycle. The aim of this paper is to present the research work carried out by ITIA, in cooperation with DEEI, to develop a tool responding to the needs mentioned above. To this end an Inverse Production Design Tool (IPDTool) has been conceived and developed. It is based on: - the modelling of entities such as in/out product, market and regulations; - an IDEFO model of the Inverse Production Plant; - a mathematical model to provide appropriate input for the simulation; - a simulation model based on the above. The IPDTool developed has been validated and used to assess the economic viability of an Inverse Production Plant in Italy. The results obtained show the usefulness of the IPDTool developed for Inverse Process designers and managers, product designers, legislators "designing" ecological laws and norms, scientists aiming at developing new Inverse Processes and related enabling technologies. The research work presented is a part of a research programme on Sustainable Production and Inverse Production Life Cycle Design in progress at ITIA-CNR. Paradigms developed for production will be studied in connection with Inverse Production to respond to respond to changes in market, ecological constraints, technology.