Material Economy and Logistics 08/2021

The increase in the importance of logistics in economic processes in recent years has significantly influenced the perception of the broadly defined transport system and its efficiency as an element of the logistics system, based on which processes in supply chains are implemented or logistics networks are developed. A synthetic measure of the logistics efficiency of economies has become the LPI — Logistics Performance Index created by the World Bank. It aims, among other things, to indicate how the TSL industry (transport–shipping–logistics) influences the economy of individual regions, including how strongly it is connected with trade development and export diversification, and how internationalised logistics processes influence regional development. Taking into account the methodology of its creation and the surveyed target group, as well as its cyclicality and invariability of the input data and the possibility of comparisons, it should be pointed out that it reflects the situation and trends in the TSL sector worldwide and in individual economies. The aim of the paper is to indicate the logistic attractiveness of Poland, based on the LPI index, as an important factor of expansion and location of logistic infrastructure investments (linear and point) and to show how both the position of Poland and the value of individual components of the Polish index changed over the years and how it influenced the changes on the TSL market in Poland. The data is based on the values of the index from 2007 to 2018. The considerations are based on the interpretation of individual components of the index using comparative analysis, indicating recommendations and conclusions on the impact of changes in the ranking and LPI values for Poland.

Firms are constantly looking for the ways leading to business competitive advantage achieving and maintaining. The logistics concept plays an important role in building such an advantage. The formation and development of the logistics concept is influenced by various factors, among which market orientation plays a significant role. The aim of the article is to present the circumstances as well as the most important directions of the market orientation influence on the logistics concept formation and development. In particular, the article presents: (1) the nature as well as basic characteristics of market orientation, (2) basic determinants of market orientation, (3) market orientation of a firm compared to other business concepts expressing the firm approach to the market, (4) relationships between market orientation and marketing concept, (5) the most important methods of the market orientation measuring, as well as (6) the symptoms of the market orientation influence on the logistics concept formation and development.

Directions of plastic waste management in the era of COVID-19

The emergence and rapid worldwide spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus resulted in increase in the production of plastic waste. The greatest increase in demand was recorded for personal protective equipment due to the fact that many countries have ordered their wearing in public space. The production of disposable food packaging has also increased during the pandemic. Researchers noted that environmental pollution will increase due to improper management of plastic waste and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE). A rational method of management and processing of plastic waste generated during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should be developed in such a way that it does not endanger the environment or human health. This article proposes a method of thermal processing of the above-mentioned waste, namely pyrolysis, which can replace landfilling and incineration. This method allows not only effective neutralization of hazardous waste, but also, which is particularly important, leads to the creation of valuable products.