Waste collection routing: a survey on problems and methods

Abstract Waste collection is a vital service performed all over the world, which heavily relies on vehicle routing. Due to regulations and local conditions, the problems and their characteristics often differ greatly. This literature survey aims to review the current state of the art overlap in waste collection and vehicle routing literature. The most notable papers are categorized according to their underlying problem type, examined and brought into relation based on their common problem characteristics. The problem types comprise general, node and arc routing problems, with vehicle routing problems being the most common, followed by arc and location routing problems. Besides the use of intermediate facilities, which is naturally very common in waste collection literature, the authors point out other interesting characteristics found in the literature and in practical problems, such as uncertain demand, personnel planning aspects, alternative collection systems or vehicle types, and characteristics related to risk or sustainability. Additionally, the authors highlight prominent scopes and objectives as well as recent developments in this area. Overall, this survey provides a selective overview and calls attention to research gaps and possible future research directions.