| Municipal reverse logistics channels consist of those activities related to the collection and disposition of municipal solid waste, refuse and recyclables, including compostables. The efficiency with which these channels operate is important to municipalities who must provide adequate services with constrained resources. We can evaluate the relative efficiency of municipal reverse logistics channels using data envelopment analysis, a linear programming application which describes an efficiency frontier describing the best practice of all those evaluated and measures the proximity to the frontier of those who are not on it.; Twenty-three municipalities in Southeastern Pennsylvania are evaluated using data envelopment analysis. The application of the data envelopment analysis model to municipal reverse logistics is discussed. The characteristics of each municipality's reverse channels are described. The results of the data envelopment analysis of the field identify seven municipalities whose channel performances describe the efficiency frontier. Relative strengths and weaknesses among the inputs and outputs of the process are identified for each of the municipalities.; The municipalities are grouped into three categories based on the channel operation strategies that they follow--municipal operation, municipal contract, and private subscription. Several factors, of which expected efficiency is only one, determine a municipality's selection of a reverse channel strategy. There are efficient reverse logistics channels operating in each of the three groups. Execution of rather than selection of a strategy appears to be the determinant of efficiency.; Data envelopment analysis presumes homogeneity among the decision making units being evaluated, in this case the municipalities. While they all are pursuing the same objectives and performing the same mission, they do not operate under the same conditions. Methods to compensate for non-homogeneity among the municipalities' operating conditions are compared using two simulation experiments and the empirical data gathered in this research. No method is found to be clearly superior to the others, or even necessarily superior to operating the data envelopment analysis model without any compensation for non-homogeneity. |
