title: An algorithm for the optimal collection of wet waste.
abstract: This work refers to the development of an approach for planning wet waste (food waste and other) collection at a metropolitan scale. Some specific modeling features distinguish this specific waste collection problem from the other ones. For instance, there may be significant differences as regards the values of the parameters (such as weight and volume) characterizing the various collection points. As it happens for classical waste collection planning, even in the case of wet waste, one has to deal with difficult combinatorial problems, where the determination of an optimal solution may require a very large computational effort, in the case of problem instances having a noticeable dimensionality. For this reason, in this work, a heuristic procedure for the optimal planning of wet waste is developed and applied to problem instances drawn from a real case study. The performances that can be obtained by applying such a procedure are evaluated by a comparison with those obtainable via a general-purpose mathematical programming software package, as well as those obtained by applying very simple decision rules commonly used in practice. The considered case study consists in an area corresponding to the historical center of the Municipality of Genoa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering - DIBRIS, Via Opera Pia 13, I-16145 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Laureri
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering - DIBRIS, Via Opera Pia 13, I-16145 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Minciardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering - DIBRIS, Via Opera Pia 13, I-16145 Genova, Italy. Electronic address: Michela.robba@unige.it.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Robba
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002947:Cities; D005502:Food; D007558:Italy; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D059027:Recycling / Q000379:methods; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D014866:Waste Products
keywords: Optimization; Recycling; Selective collection; Solid waste collection; Waste management; Wet waste