Solid-Waste Disposal with Intermediate Transfer Stations: An Application of the Fixed-Charge Location Problem

Abstract

This paper examines the problem of urban solid-waste disposal by landfill. In such disposal, intermediate transfer stations are often used for processing before transport to the landfill. Located at the periphery of waste-generating areas, these transfer stations can compact or recover reusable materials, or merely transfer the waste to heavier and more efficient transporters for the longer, final leg of the trip to the disposal site. The model presented here optimizes disposal costs by trading off transportation costs against the capital and operating costs of introducing the transfer stations. A branch-and-bound procedure is used to obtain the optimum, and an imbedded simplex code serves to provide the solution at each branch.

Keywords:

• Branch-and-Bound
• Transportation
• Waste Disposal