Optimal routing for waste collection: a case study in Singapore

ABSTRACT To collect and dispose growing amounts of municipal solid waste (MSW) changed to be a hot topic along with the rapid urbanization in past decades. Cities are more and more dependent on the incineration instead of landfilling due to the cost-efficiency and environmental concerns. Considering the limited number of incineration plants and complicated situation of transportation in both spatial and temporal dimensions in different cities, the optimal routing for waste collection turns to be meaningful research topic. In this research, the ant colony optimization (ACO)-based multi-objective routing model coupled with min-max model and Dijkstra’s algorithm is proposed to address the question of which route to take from these waste-generating points to the target incineration plant(s) considering travel time, accident probability (black spots), and population exposure, so as to support the routing decision-making. The model is successfully implemented in Singapore and the effectiveness of the model has also been justified. Besides, few limitations of this research have also been discussed, some of which would also be the future directions of our research, especially the design and integration of a web-based routing decision-making support system.

[1]  Evripidis Bampis,et al.  Handbook of Approximation Algorithms and Metaheuristics , 2007 .

[2]  Xinyue Ye,et al.  Coarse-grained parallel genetic algorithm applied to a vector based land use allocation optimization problem: the case study of Tongzhou Newtown, Beijing, China , 2013, Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment.

[3]  Hui Lin,et al.  A genetic algorithm for multiobjective dangerous goods route planning , 2013, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[4]  Thierry Kulcar,et al.  Optimizing solid waste collection in Brussels , 1996 .

[5]  Hui Lin,et al.  An adaptive compromise programming method for multi-objective path optimization , 2013, J. Geogr. Syst..

[6]  G. Tavares,et al.  Optimisation of MSW collection routes for minimum fuel consumption using 3D GIS modelling. , 2009, Waste management.

[7]  Yong Soon Tan,et al.  Clean, Green and Blue: Singapore's Journey Towards Environmental and Water Sustainability , 2008 .

[8]  Wenwen Li,et al.  Municipal solid waste collection optimization in Singapore , 2015 .

[9]  Walter J. Gutjahr,et al.  ACO algorithms with guaranteed convergence to the optimal solution , 2002, Inf. Process. Lett..

[10]  Karl F. Doerner,et al.  Multicriteria tour planning for mobile healthcare facilities in a developing country , 2007, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[11]  Daniel Angus,et al.  Multiple objective ant colony optimisation , 2009, Swarm Intelligence.

[12]  Yee Leung,et al.  Multi-objective route planning for dangerous goods using compromise programming , 2011, J. Geogr. Syst..

[13]  Thomas Stützle,et al.  Ant Colony Optimization , 2009, EMO.

[14]  Shaowen Wang,et al.  Sustainable land use optimization using Boundary-based Fast Genetic Algorithm , 2012, Comput. Environ. Urban Syst..

[15]  Xiaoping Liu,et al.  Intelligent GIS for solving high‐dimensional site selection problems using ant colony optimization techniques , 2009, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[16]  Jiulin Sun,et al.  Optimal spatial allocation of water resources based on Pareto ant colony algorithm , 2014, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[17]  Katerina Papatzelou,et al.  Optimal solid waste collection routes identified by the ant colony system algorithm , 2007, Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA.

[18]  Sushil Kumar,et al.  Analytic hierarchy process: An overview of applications , 2006, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[19]  Liesje De Boeck,et al.  Municipal Solid Waste Collection and Management Problems: A Literature Review , 2014, Transp. Sci..

[20]  P. Parvatha Reddy,et al.  Integrated Solid Waste Management , 2011 .

[21]  Nicolas Jozefowiez,et al.  Multi-objective vehicle routing problems , 2008, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[22]  Guangren Qian,et al.  Comparison of green-house gas emission reductions and landfill gas utilization between a landfill system and an incineration system: , 2010 .

[23]  Byung-In Kim,et al.  Waste collection vehicle routing problem with time windows using multi-objective genetic algorithms , 2007 .

[24]  Michael Batty,et al.  Spatial multi-objective land use optimization: extensions to the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II , 2011, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[25]  Richard F. Hartl,et al.  Pareto Ant Colony Optimization: A Metaheuristic Approach to Multiobjective Portfolio Selection , 2004, Ann. Oper. Res..