Solidarity Behaviour for Optimizing the Waste Selective Collection

Abstract

The problem of managing selective collection of waste using containers inside historic city centres can be performed in three sequential phases: first, locating containers along the streets; then, determining the minimum fleet size required to perform all collecting services; and finally, identifying the optimal collection routes. Obviously, the result of the first phase highly influences the procedure since this will determine the decisions to be taken for the subsequent phases. This paper is focused on the first phase. Facility-customer distances, the size of container groups and the cost of installing those containers in specific sites along the streets are parameters to be considered when designing the collecting system. Additionally, we assume that customers are willing to have a solidarity behaviour, which consists of using a container assigned to them within a pre-established proximity radius, although the assigned container may not be necessarily the closest to their residence. For this scenario, a more efficient deployment of containers for selective collection of urban solid waste can be obtained. To illustrate the performance of the developed methodology, a computational experience has been carried out on a network with randomized data based on a zone belonging to city of Seville (Spain).