Relationship Between Reverse Logistics and Circular Economy: A Literature Review

Reverse logistics (RL) aims to manage the product’s packaging return from the point of sale to the manufacturer, while circular economy (CE) focuses on the recovery, recycling, reuse, and regeneration of material. This paper systematically reviews 277 scientific articles depicting how CE principles apply to RL processes. The research detects whether RL based on CE changes according to the productive sector, the level of technological innovation, and the supply chain (SC) organization. Our results can potentially benefit not only researchers studying this scientific literature, but also logistics managers, regulators, and policymakers.