Barriers to the Adoption of Reverse Logistics in the Construction Industry: A Combined ISM and MICMAC Approach

With growing environmental concerns, reverse logistics (RL) assumes a significant role in the sustainability of the construction industry to the extent that it can contribute to mitigating some of the negative environmental impacts related to its activity. However, despite the benefits that can be attributed to RL, its implementation level in the construction industry is still very low. This research determines the root barriers to adopting RL in construction (ARLC) using the case of the Portuguese construction market. The methodology involved focus groups and a combined Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and Matrices d’Impacts cross-multiplication appliqúe a classmate (MICMAC) approach. The root barriers that have been identified by the application of the methodology to the ARLC are: lack of financial incentives to incorporate recycled materials, lack of knowledge about RL, lack of technical support, standard codes and regulations in favor of using recycled materials, lack of information sharing, cooperation and coordination among entities of the supply chain, current buildings have not been designed for deconstruction, and lack of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management and recycling infrastructures and markets for the materials resulting from CDW. The highest hierarchical level includes barrier B10 (lack of financial incentives to incorporate recycled materials into the construction); this barrier influences all the other barriers and, as such, it is considered the key barrier to the ARLC in Portugal. The research has also identified 17 different mitigation measures to tackle these barriers, with different natures: fiscal, regulatory, financial, etc.