A municipal solid wastes planning model for a metropolitan area

In this paper it will be shown how the problem of solid wastes collection and disposal can be formulated as a dynamic mixed-integer linear programming model. The developed model can be used for the determination of sites for landfills, transfer stations, recycling centers and the periodical routing of collection vehicles in order to reduce the cost of municipal solid wastes transport and disposal. The model has been tested by applying it to a hypothetical municipal solid waste system. The possibility of using the developed model for managing and planning the municipal solid wastes system of the Dammam metropolitan area, Saudi Arabia will be discussed. The model is general in structure and can be used to address other problems such as the problem of hazardous wastes management, petroleum products distribution and food processing industries.