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1. Introduction
Today, many industries follow a linear model of sourcing materials, using them, and finally disposing of the generated waste. This linear model has negative environmental impacts due to resulting in ecosystem pollution and unsustainable resource usage. In recent years, most companies have focused on sustainable growth, including a switch toward the circular economy (CE) model (Jaeger and Upadhyay, 2020). The CE is a new production and consumption model that endeavors to find solutions to environmental problems. The management of the circular economy supply chain (CESC) aims at revitalizing the flow of different resources within the economy by recycling waste and reducing emissions (Formentini et al., 2021). Due to rising global environmental problems, the transition to a CE should prioritize all industries. However, the transition requires a transparent and controllable supply chain (SC), suggesting the importance of a good SC design (Reimann et al., 2019; Yousefi et al., 2017). Since CE considerations can impose high costs on the SC, it is necessary to establish a comprehensive SC design model that considers CE. Also, integrating sustainable goals into the planning of corporations is of great necessity in completely implementing the CE concept. Firms should be able to cooperate with a network of third parties. In this regard, closed-process chains can be very useful in preventing and reducing the impacts of damaging activities on the environment. This approach is effective in managing the entire SC with the aim of recycling and refurbishing products. Therefore, the implementation of circular SCs, which encompasses the closed-loop design, can provide useful outcomes for the components of the SC (e.g. manufacturer, distributor and supplier) and the environment. In this regard, the closed-loop strategy is more intertwined with the CE concept (Sillanpää and Ncibi, 2019).
Hence, the closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) is highly recommended for dealing with environmental concerns and strict rules on reducing waste in the product lifecycle (Reimann et al., 2019). A CLSC includes both forward and reverses chain movements of the product (Rezaee et al., 2017; Tosarkani et al., 2020). Forward SC comprises product movements from upstream to downstream. On the other hand, reverse logistics (RL) includes movements of either unsold goods or used ones by the client to the upstream side. Indeed,...