The hazardous waste location-routing problem

Abstract

As a result of high industrialization and technology hazardous waste management problem has now become an unavoidable problem of the world. Hazardous waste management involves collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes. In this thesis, the existing models in the literature are analyzed in terms of applicability. A new multiobjective location-routing model is proposed by combining the applicable aspects from different models. Our model also includes the constraints that reflect certain requirements that have been observed in the literature but could not been incorporated into the models correctly together with the additional constraints that we propose. The aim of the model is to decide on the following questions: where to open treatment centers with which technologies, where to open disposal centers, how to route different types of hazardous wastes to which of the compatible treatment technologies, and how to route waste residues to disposal centers. The model has two objectives of minimizing total cost and minimizing transportation risk. A large scale implementation of the model in the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey is presented.