Returnable transport items (RTIs) not only have economic and environmental benefits but also require rigorous management. If RTIs are not managed appropriately, their benefits will not be realized. As a result, responsive actions such as adjusting the retail price can be taken to cope with the uncertainty in the circulation of RTIs. In this paper, we consider a supply chain composed of a manufacturer and a retailer, in which RTIs are used to package and protect products in the long-haul shipments. RTIs are checked periodically so that defective RTIs can be fixed. In such a supply chain, we derive the optimal retail price to maximize the retailer’s profit per unit time. On the basis of sensitivity analysis, we provide pricing strategies for the retailer in a supply chain using RTIs. We further make extensions by considering a carbon tax policy. It is found that the influences of the carbon tax policy on the retail price are affected by the tradeoff between the carbon cost and the enhanced demand. Moreover, the conditions under which the goal of emission reduction can be achieved are derived.
