Impact of Transportation Time on Inventory Management Costs: Analyzing the Relationship in Food Waste Management

In today’s world, environmental sustainability and resource conservation have become major concerns globally. In general, logistics, and more specifically, transportation time, play a crucial role in decision-making aimed at reducing spoilage and related expenses. This study investigates how variations in transportation time impact inventory management costs in food waste recycling across three sectors: composting, mushroom cultivation, and insect farming. A synthetic dataset was created, simulating realistic scenarios in food waste management, including variables such as transportation time, type of waste, energy usage, seasonal variations, and inventory management costs. Computational models and statistical analyses, including moderation and mediation analyses, were conducted using R programming language to evaluate three hypotheses. The results indicate a marginal moderating impact of waste type, where perishable waste marginally increased the cost impact of transportation time without reaching conventional significance. Energy usage mediated the relationship, where increased transportation time correlated with increased energy use and costs. Seasonal variations moderated the relationship, especially in winter and summer, indicating enhanced sensitivity to transport time.