Models and algorithms for the integrated planning of bin allocation and vehicle routing in solid waste management

摘要

The collection and treatment of waste involves several types of waste to be collected, such as the municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste (IW). Each type of waste requires specific technologies and methods for collection and disposal. The volume of MSW to be managed for each town increases over time. In urban areas, collection sites need be visited several times during the week. In addition, a large network of plants for the treatment and disposal is required. The costs associated with waste management are high and most of it is related to the logistics activities. Many municipalities have been assessing their solid waste management and examining the cost-effectiveness and environmental impacts and both private and municipal haulers are giving consideration to new technologies such as computerized vehicle routing for their MSW management. The design and management of an effective collection service can be grouped into three main phases. The first phase is demand analysis that forecasts the quantity of the waste to be collected. The second phase is supply planning involves the choice of the specific collection model, namely, a door-to-door service or a collection based on large street bins. The appropriate service frequency and capacity allocation to collection sites must be determined. Given the demand of a collection site, by increasing the number of bins located there, the service frequency of the site can be reduced and this impacts the fixed investment costs associated with service setup. It may influence the variable costs associated with the collection. The third phase involves the design of the vehicle routes for the collection vehicles on each day of a planning horizon. A large opportunity for improvement is available through integrated planning that allow various steps of the process to be incorporated. This paper defines an approach that integrates the routing of waste collection vehicles and the allocation of waste bins to the sites. For a given planning period, a schedule is developed for the waste collection vehicles that can be applied repeatedly, and determined the number and type of bins at each waste-collection site. This problem is called the waste bin allocation and routing problem (WBARP). (20 refs.)