Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
if the size of each company's hauler were known, these factors make it
difficult to quantify the total amount of solid waste each could hold.
One final assumption to consider is the application of VRP to Scenario 1.
The primary goal of VRP is to service each household by minimizing the
overall collection time for each solid waste collection company. Thus,
Scenario 1 results are based on the optimal collection route when in reality,
most if not all companies are driving completely different routes. The only
way to truly model current collection is for companies to share their collection
strategies and customer lists. Until then, results from the VRP model as it
relates to current collection cannot be validated as reality.
C ONCLUSION
Solid waste management system planning has received wide attention
from environmental planners because of its complex coordination of various
management strategies. One issue is how to effectively distribute the
collection crew size and vehicles in a metropolitan region. This research
applied the VRP function to solid waste collection in the City of Altoona,
Pennsylvania, USA.
Focus was placed on understanding the current collection strategy and
proposing two alternate scenarios. Results indicate the current collection
strategy with 20 separate collection companies and a fragmented customer
base is highly inefficient in terms of collection time, distance traveled, and
number of trips to the transfer station. Each of the alternate scenarios greatly
improves upon current collection in all areas. Controlled collection scenario
with six collection companies and clustered customers offers a savings of
approximately 70 percent in distance traveled and 44 percent in collection
time.
Additional savings were demonstrated with the improved efficiency
scenario as distance traveled and collection time were 76 and 50 percent less
than current collection. Improved efficiency provides further savings
compared to controlled collection as the distance and time traveled is 20 and
12 percent less.
Savings in terms of distance traveled and collection time are significant
for a city's operating budget as the cost of waste collection is a very large part
of the operating budget. The two alternate scenarios demonstrate that
optimization of waste collection service can significantly reduce collection
time and distance traveled. This translates to financial savings for collection
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