Environmental issue is becoming a serious global concern. Human activities associate with industrial activities and households produce a great amount of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, and gives significant impact on the environment. The legislation on carbon emissions has become an important agenda in order to control the amount of carbon emissions that might affect the world for future generations. In conjunction to this issue, therefore, the research was conducted to investigate the impact of the carbon emission policies on reverse and forward logistics strategies and operations and propose optimisation models for the paper recycling and fresh produce industry with cases in the UK. The optimal network design approach for both cases under carbon emission control is formulated. The research concluded that exporting the waste paper to Asia is a better option when pollution from the recycling is not charged. However, when considering the carbon emission in both the UK and the Asian country, the best strategy would depend on the amount of recycling and the differences between the costs of the recycling locally and overseas. For fresh produce case, with no carbon policies, road is a better transportation option. However, if the industry has to pay for carbon emission, consideration of multimodal transportation has to be made in order to remain optimal. The analysis of business strategies and configuration of reverse and forward logistics networks are carried out with quantitative optimisation modelling. The analysis for paper recycling and the fresh produce industry consider contributions to the environment and costs in relation to carbon emission. Mixed integer linear programming models were developed for both cases to obtain the optimal choice in strategic and operational decision making. Transportation industry is a main contributor of greenhouse gases that give direct impact to the environment. Multimodal transportation planning is important because it can help to reduce impact on the environment, by using a combination of at least two modes of transportation in a single transport chain, without a change of container for the goods, with most of the route travelled by road, rail, inland waterway or ocean-going vessel and with the shortest possible initial and final journeys by road. Multimodal transportation planning is proposed in the fresh produce industry with another variable which is time. The analytical result derived from sensitivity analysis is discussed to draw academic and practical findings for carbon control policy making and logistics network configuration. The research outcome has a good generic contribution to eco-logistics management of other recycling materials and to generic logistics network configuration issues. The research is also significantly contributed to government policy making in carbon emission control.