Determining optimal resource recycling boundary at regional level: A case study on Tokyo Metropolitan Area in Japan

Conventionally, material inputs to industries come from either natural resources or intermediate products. With the increasing attention on greening the industrial process, municipal solid waste (MSW) can be separated and utilized as inputs to large-scale industries. As such, waste flows need to be managed to meet the requirements of industries by considering both quality and scale. Small scales of municipal recycling centers (MRCs) for pre-treating recyclable wastes often lead to higher pre-treatment cost and lower recycling efficiencies. Theoretically, appropriate facility scale and recycling boundary should be based upon a balanced consideration between economies of scale and transportation costs. However, only a few empirical studies on recycling boundaries have been conducted. Existing modeling studies are mostly case studies for planning purposes and do not theoretically examine the mechanisms and factors that determine recycling boundary. Under such a circumstance, this paper fills such a gap by quantitatively seeking the determinants for recycling boundaries and the related mechanism. An optimization model applying on the recycling of waste plastics is developed and tested in the Tokyo Metropolitan Region (TMR) in Japan. The results indicate two determinants for recycling boundary at the regional level: spatial density of separated wastes and the ratio of unit transportation cost to unit treatment cost. Separated wastes that are collected in low spatial density and have a low ratio of unit transportation cost to unit treatment cost should be better recycled in a large region. The finding implies that regional recycling networks should have multiple layers designed for different types of wastes due to the differences in their spatial density, unit transportation cost and unit treatment cost.     

A multi-objective mathematical model for the industrial hazardous waste location-routing problem

Industrial hazardous waste management involves the collection, transportation, treatment, recycling and disposal of industrial hazardous materials that pose risk to their surroundings. In this paper, a new multi-objective location-routing model is developed, and implemented in the Marmara region of Turkey. The aim of the model is to help decision makers decide on locations of treatment centers utilizing different technologies, routing different types of industrial hazardous wastes to compatible treatment centers, locations of recycling centers and routing hazardous waste and waste residues to those centers, and locations of disposal centers and routing waste residues there. In the mathematical model, three criteria are considered: minimizing total cost, which includes total transportation cost of hazardous materials and waste residues and fixed cost of establishing treatment, disposal and recycling centers; minimizing total transportation risk related to the population exposure along transportation routes of hazardous materials and waste residues; and minimizing total risk for the population around treatment and disposal centers, also called site risk. A lexicographic weighted Tchebycheff formulation is developed and computed with CPLEX software to find representative efficient solutions to the problem. Data related to the Marmara region is obtained by utilizing Arcview 9.3 GIS software and Marmara region geographical database.     

An integer goal programming model for hazardous waste treatment and disposal

The improper handling and disposal of hazardous wastes cause threats to human health and the environment. One reason for the improper handling and disposal of these wastes is that not much consideration is usually given to the logistical aspects of hazardous waste systems. In this paper an integer goal programming model is developed that takes into consideration the multiple goals and needs of many groups involved in managing and planning hazardous waste systems. The model can easily be implemented and can be used to address many of the issues related to facility location, recycling, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes.     

A Planning Model for the Development of Waste Material Recycling Programmes

Material recycling is quickly becoming the most visible component of municipal solid waste management systems, and optimization models could play a prominent role in the long-term cost-effective planning of these systems. In this paper, we develop a mixed integer programming model for the recycling of various by-product materials within the overall waste system. This model is solvable on a microcomputer for reasonable problem dimensions, and the planning methodology is applied to a hypothetical municipality to illustrate the potential utility of the developed modelling approach.     

A multi-criteria decision making approach for location planning for urban distribution centers under uncertainty

Location planning for urban distribution centers is vital in saving distribution costs and minimizing traffic congestion arising from goods movement in urban areas. In this paper, we present a multi-criteria decision making approach for location planning for urban distribution centers under uncertainty. The proposed approach involves identification of potential locations, selection of evaluation criteria, use of fuzzy theory to quantify criteria values under uncertainty and application of fuzzy TOPSIS to evaluate and select the best location for implementing an urban distribution center. Sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the influence of criteria weights on location planning decisions for urban distribution centers.The strength of the proposed work is the ability to deal with uncertainty arising due to a lack of real data in location planning for new urban distribution centers. The proposed approach can be practically applied by logistics operators in deciding on the location of new distribution centers considering the sustainable freight regulations proposed by municipal administrations. A numerical application is provided to illustrate the approach.     

Solid Waste Collection: A Case Study

Planning for urban solid waste management requires an assessment of many complex interactions among transportation systems, land use patterns, urban growth and development, and public health considerations. The authors discuss the application of a data acquisition and analysis system and a simulation model to the complex problems of the solid waste management system in Cleveland, Ohio. As the result of applying these techniques, Cleveland's solid waste managers reduced their annual budget of $14.8 million in 1970 to a low of $8.8 million in 1972. The total savings in a 3-yr period were $14.6 million based on the 1970 budget. In addition, the city reduced its solid waste work force from 1640 to 850 and the number of collection routes from 224 to 102, and it redesigned its collection routing system. The management structure of the Division of Solid Waste Collection and Disposal was completely reorganized to take advantage of and to supplement these major organizational changes. The City Council has, moreover, passed an ordinance which will allow the construction of transfer stations, as recommended in the study; one such facility has been built, and land has been purchased for the other.     

回收量不确定下考虑技术授权的闭环供应链产品定价研究

越来越多的企业开始采取再制造的运作模式以缓解资源浪费和环境危机。原始设备制造商(OEM)为专注于新产品制造,可通过技术授权的方式委托第三方再制造商(TPR)进行再制造活动。本文研究了回收量不确定且OEM技术授权TPR进行再制造情形下闭环供应链的产品定价问题。研究发现:(1)当废旧品回收量在较小范围波动时,OEM和TPR若想获得不低于确定情形下的利润需考虑企业风险规避程度的影响;(2)当废旧品回收量在较大范围波动时,OEM和零售商在分别制定产品批发价和零售价时需按废旧品回收量波动方向相反的方向进行;(3)在废旧品回收量波动情形下,OEM应优先选择与风险中性的TPR合作,再适当降低技术授权费用使得TPR有利可图,这样既有利于促进废旧品的回收,也益于双方合作关系的持续发展。     

An adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm for a selective and periodic inventory routing problem

We study a selective and periodic inventory routing problem (SPIRP) and develop an Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search (ALNS) algorithm for its solution. The problem concerns a biodiesel production facility collecting used vegetable oil from sources, such as restaurants, catering companies and hotels that produce waste vegetable oil in considerable amounts. The facility reuses the collected waste oil as raw material to produce biodiesel. It has to meet certain raw material requirements either from daily collection, or from its inventory, or by purchasing virgin oil. SPIRP involves decisions about which of the present source nodes to include in the collection program, and which periodic (weekly) routing schedule to repeat over an infinite planning horizon. The objective is to minimize the total collection, inventory and purchasing costs while meeting the raw material requirements and operational constraints. A single-commodity flow-based mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was proposed for this problem in an earlier study. The model was solved with 25 source nodes on a 7-day cyclic planning horizon. In order to tackle larger instances, we develop an ALNS algorithm that is based on a rich neighborhood structure with 11 distinct moves tailored to this problem. We demonstrate the performance of the ALNS, and compare it with the MILP model on test instances containing up to 100 source nodes.     

Environmental site evaluation of waste management facilities embedded into EUGÈNE model: A multicriteria approach

EUGÈNE is a sophisticated mixed integer linear programming model developed to help regional decision makers on long-term planning for solid waste management activities. The model removes almost every limitations encountered in other waste management models and contains a large quantity of variables and constraints. The method used to embed waste management environmental parameters in the EUGÈNE model consists in building global impact index (GII) for all site/facility combinations. First, an environmental and spatial evaluation of waste management facilities over sites is based on qualitative and quantitative criteria measuring biophysical and social impacts. Spatial analysis is carried out by geographical information system routines. Then, a multicriteria analysis ranks all site/facility combinations, according to their global performance based on all criteria. The net flow, computed by the PROMETHEE multicriteria outranking method, is considered as a GII to be embedded into EUGÈNE. The model objective function is thus modified to minimize total system cost and GII. Some practical results obtained for the City of Montreal are discussed.     

区域废弃物网络系统的选址-运输优化模型

区域废弃物网络系统优化设计包括设施的选址和废弃物运输路线的确定。考虑了多类型设施、多种废弃物流和模糊数形式的废弃物产生量,建立了模糊机会约束规划模型来求得整个系统的优化配置。通过将模型中的机会约束清晰化,将模糊机会约束规划模型转化成等价的确定模型来求解。实例表明了模型的有效性。     

Application of ELECTRE III for the integrated management of municipal solid wastes in the Greater Athens Area

The present work presents an application of multicriterial aid for decisions in the area of municipal solid waste management in Greece, in the context of a case study for household wastes in the Greater Athens Area. For the case study area, a concise family of 24 evaluation criteria is proposed. Through these, five selectively composed alternatives for the integrated management of household waste are compared and ranked by the ELECTRE III multicriterial method. Results indicate separate collection at the source to be particularly important, whereas the need for careful sensitivity analysis to inter- and intra-criteria information is demonstrated.     

Environmental integrated production and recycling management

Environmental integrated production and recycling planning is of great importance for the competitive position of production enterprises. Due to increasing disposal costs for industrial byproducts and waste as well as stronger emission standards, companies will be required to set up and control advanced, environmental friendly production technologies, so that emissions and byproducts will be reduced drastically. Nonavoidable byproducts and used products at the end of their lifetime have to be recycled by the producers. The complexity of the resulting decision problems requires adequate operations research methods. The following paper deals with the development of sophisticated operations research models for two selected planning problems: recycling of industrial byproducts and dismantling and recycling of products at the end of their lifetime. The models have been applied successfully to large industrial problems in practice in the fields of recycling of demolition waste in a German-French region and byproduct management in the steel industry. The presentations of these two applications follow a case study point of view.     

A decision support system for urban waste management

This paper describes a decision support system, for urban waste management in a regional area, to be used for evaluating general policies for service organisation of the collection and for identifying areas suitable for locating waste treatment and disposal plants. The Decision Support System (DSS) is applied to a selected provinces in Sicily. The decision support system allows the generation and evaluation of suitable alternatives with respect to salient features of the problem, especially environmental consequences. The paper describes the identification and collection of relevant information, the structuring of a database, the design of combinatorial optimisation algorithms for solving the core location problem, the study of models for evaluating the different alternatives and their framing in a complete multicriteria decision model. Finally, the solution of the case study, by means of the DSS, is described.     

A web-based decision support system for waste lube oils collection and recycling

This paper presents a web-based decision support system (DSS) that enables schedulers to tackle reverse supply chain management problems interactively. The focus is on the efficient and effective management of waste lube oils collection and recycling operations. The emphasis is given on the systemic dimensions and modular architecture of the proposed DSS. The latter incorporates intra- and inter-city vehicle routing with real-life operational constraints using shortest path and sophisticated hybrid metaheuristic algorithms. It is also integrated with an Enterprise Resource Planning system allowing the utilization of particular functional modules and the combination with other peripheral planning tools. Furthermore, the proposed DSS provides a framework for on-line monitoring and reporting to all stages of the waste collection processes. The system is developed using a web architecture that enables sharing of information and algorithms among multiple sites, along with wireless telecommunication facilities. The application to an industrial environment showed improved productivity and competitiveness, indicating its applicability on realistic reverse logistical planning problems.     

Determining optimal pollution control policies: An application of bilevel programming

This paper presents two optimization models for hazardous waste capacity planning and treatment facility locations. The complex behavior of firms in the presence of central planning decisions and price signals is investigated and it is shown that such behavior can best be captured by a hierarchical model. In particular, a central planning model, where the government is assumed to control all location/allocation decisions and a bilevel model, where the government is the leader with the goal of maximizing the `social welfare' via taxation is presented. Detailed formulations of both models are developed, solved, and the computational results are presented.     

停车设施选址的双层规划模型

为了解决城市停车难问题,针对目前日益紧张的土地资源和快速增长的交通流量,考虑停车设施对路网上交通流的影响,提出一种在土地利用规划基础上的,对路网影响最小,停车场使用者步行时间最省的停车设施选址的双层规划模型,借助现有的交通规划软件(Emme)进行求解,并应用于上海市江湾-五角场副中心地区停车设施规划研究中.     

基于动态定价的再制造商主导的多周期多目标产品回收网络设计

假设回收商和制造/再制造商为独立理性的决策者,并共同构建回收网络,且制造/再制造商在两者的博弈中处于主导地位。另考虑废旧品回收率是回收价格的线性函数,结合回收定价与回收网络设计,建立基于动态定价的回收网络双层规划模型,上层规划为制造/再制造商进行再制造工厂的选址,确定回收补贴价格,下层规划为回收商进行回收中心的选址,确定废旧品的回收价格。通过建立模型求解算法,并给出算例论证模型的有效性。     

Optimizing solid waste collection in Brussels

This paper reports on a project dealing with waste collection management. A methodology used in this case study combines an operations research method with systems engineering. It illustrates how waste transportation costs are minimized in a major urban area. Due to the complexity of a real size situation, a model is developed to consider a set of points for the collection routes rather than the arcs making up the streets. Several means of transportation including transportation by vehicle, rail and canal are evaluated. Collector vehicles reside overnight in depots and daily evacuate accumulated waste to an incinerator or a transfer station where it is deposited before being shipped out to the incinerator. The latter two sites are called terminal sites. Although optimization models are too difficult to solve with existing means, useful collection strategies are found to give some grounds to decisions made by urban administrators.     

Facility location and supply chain management – A review

Facility location decisions play a critical role in the strategic design of supply chain networks. In this paper, a literature review of facility location models in the context of supply chain management is given. We identify basic features that such models must capture to support decision-making involved in strategic supply chain planning. In particular, the integration of location decisions with other decisions relevant to the design of a supply chain network is discussed. Furthermore, aspects related to the structure of the supply chain network, including those specific to reverse logistics, are also addressed. Significant contributions to the current state-of-the-art are surveyed taking into account numerous factors. Supply chain performance measures and optimization techniques are also reviewed. Applications of facility location models to supply chain network design ranging across various industries are presented. Finally, a list of issues requiring further research are highlighted.     

A computational model for solid waste management with application

A model for regional solid waste management as a network flow problem is described, and a special purpose algorithm is developed. The model is applied to waste management and facility siting decisions in the Munich Metropolitan Area in the Federal Republic of Germany.