Green Practices and Strategies

**17**

factories.

**Chapter 2**

**Abstract**

introduction of a modal shift.

mills as valuable materials.

create new products.

**1. Introduction**

Efficiency Improvement of a

This chapter discusses the efficiency of a series of processes from discarded tire recovery to thermal recycling. A simulation model was developed for improving the efficiency of fuel chip transportation in the Kansai region of Japan, and a simulation analysis was carried out based on actual data. Discarded tires form automobiles are recovered through gas stations, tire shops, etc. The discarded tires are crushed into fuel chips at a recycling factory and are used for thermal recycling. Fuel chips are transported to steelworks, paper mills, etc., and are used as a substitute for coal in boilers at those plants. Fuel chips, made from discarded tires, have about the same fuel efficiency, in terms of calorie performance, as coal. However, it has been directly transported from a recycling factory to steelworks by truck, without any consideration for the environment. Therefore, in this research, this study investigated measures to transport fuel chips efficiently and environmentally, by introducing a modal shift, which combines trucks with marine transport, rather than truck alone. As a result of numerical experiments, it was clarified that adequate results can be obtained if the distance of sea transport is sufficiently far apart for the

**Keywords:** reverse logistics, collection and transport, recycle, intermediate treatment

The present study focuses on discarded tire-derived fuel chips for thermal recycling and examines the effective introduction of modal-shift transportation. The present study proposes a delivery system using a "milk-run method through a transshipment depot, into which marine transportation is introduced," instead of using the truck as an effective measure. In the delivery system, discarded tires are treated at an intermediate treatment factory and turned into fuel chips. The fuel chips are then transported and distributed to cement factories and steel and paper

Materials are recycled in such a way that used goods are collected and transported to an intermediate treatment factory, and the used goods are treated to

Recycled materials used for thermal recycling, such as fuel chips, are not transported and distributed to end users through delivery centers, which handle recycled materials, but in many cases are directly transported and distributed to the warehouses of end users' factories from the warehouses of intermediate treatment

Reverse Logistics System

*Kuninori Suzuki and Nobunori Aiura*

### **Chapter 2**
