Increasing waste recycling efficiency in Mega cities: A new recycling mode in Southeast China

Abstract

Efficient recycling of recyclable waste is regarded as a crucial countermeasure for mega cities facing current shortage of resources and achieving sustainable development. This research discussed existing government-dominating and enterprise-dominating recycling modes in Southeast China and proposed a modified mode with higher efficiency. In particular, this study integrated partitioned vehicle routing problem with time windows into recycling mode and thus realized cost savings and promoted scheme efficiency. Subsequently, cost-effective analysis and Rough set-based grey-TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) framework have been applied to evaluate the recycling modes. The results show that: (i) Applying partitioned vehicle routing problem with time windows, cost savings of modified mode can be realized during process of waste collection and transporting; (ii) Under case study conducted in Jiading District, Shanghai, modified mode achieves 57% cost savings compared with enterprise-dominating mode; (iii) Modified recycling mode incorporates participation of both government and enterprises, and therefore has been proved as a highly efficient mode according to adopted evaluation framework. These findings would provide vital insights for the design of recycling system in mega cities.