Hybrid optimization framework enhances decision-making for WEEE recycling facilities, suggesting improved efficiency and resilience.
The escalating global surge in Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) necessitates the strategic deployment of recycling facilities within resilient, multi-period networks. However, existing planning methodologies falter due to the non-stationary spatiotemporal volatility of e-waste generation, the high reconfiguration costs associated with path-dependent infrastructure, and the “curse of dimensionality” inherent in large-scale dynamic optimization. To address these challenges, we propose LAtt-PR, an innovative hybrid reinforced adaptive optimization framework. The methodology integrates a spatiotemporal attention-based neural network, combining Multi-Head Attention (MHA) for spatial correlation with Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) units for temporal dependencies to accurately capture and predict fluctuating demand patterns. At its core, the framework employs Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) as a high-level action proposer to prune the expansive search space, followed by a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) module to perform intensive local refinement, ensuring both global strategic foresight and numerical precision. Experimental results on large-scale instances with 150 nodes demonstrate that LAtt-PR significantly outperforms state-of-the-art benchmarks. Specifically, the proposed framework achieves a solution quality improvement of 76% over traditional metaheuristics Genetic Algorithm (GA)/PSO and 55% over pure DRL baselines Deep Q-Network(DQN)/Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). Furthermore, while maintaining a negligible optimality gap of less than 4% relative to the exact solver Gurobi, LAtt-PR reduces computational time to just 16% of the solver’s requirement. These findings confirm that LAtt-PR provides a robust, scalable, and efficient decision-making tool for optimizing resource circularity and environmental resilience in volatile, real-world recycling logistics.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Qu et al. (2026) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: