Using Discrete-Event Simulation in Urban Solid Waste Selection

Adequate management of urban solid waste (USW) is beneficial to the environment, cities and people who depend on the income generated from collecting this waste material to survive. Due to the level of complexity of these processes involved in recyclable USW sorting, management tools which enable systemic studies become valuable assets by evaluating the effects changes may cause on the organization. This paper presents a case study in which a USW collection process was evaluated using computational simulation. The study was conducted in conjunction with the USW trash gatherers association of Itajuba, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data were collected via observation, interviews and questionnaires. Computational simulation enabled the visualization of the flow of materials in the process, the bottleneck indication and the experiments to simulate scenarios in order to increase the association’s productivity.