A sustainable multi-objective model for the hazardous waste location-routing problem: A real case study

Abstract

A substantial extent of harmful rubbish produced from manufacturing processes and health segments has posed a significant warning to the health of humans by affecting environmental concerns and the pollution of soil, air, and water resources. In this research, a multi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is presented for a sustainable hazardous waste location-routing problem. The position of the facilities and decisions on the routes for transferring hazardous waste as well as the waste remainder are considered to design a proper waste collection system. The proposed model tries to minimize the whole costs of the waste management system, the total hazards from the facilities and transportation, together with the CO₂ emissions, simultaneously equipped with a real case study to show the applicability of the developed model. In order to show the sustainability importance, the outputs of the original model are compared with the model, not including sustainability. The outcomes illustrate that, under the lack of sustainability, total costs, transportation, and site risk along with the CO₂ emissions increase, demonstrating the importance of sustainability. Besides, the extracted managerial insights support managers in making better decisions in the hazardous waste management system.