Shortest service location model for planning waste pickup locations

A municipal solid waste (MSW) and recycled material curbside pickup bus system was recently initiated in a Taiwan city to improve collection service. For such an MSW pickup system, selecting appropriate collection stops critically affects hauling costs and service efficiency. Conventionally, MSW collection points are heuristically and manually chosen, resulting in a hauling system that is not as effective as intended in terms of location suitability and the number of collection points. The Shortest Service Location (SSL) model, which minimizes the sum of service distances, was therefore proposed in this study. The SSL model was compared with two other models for a local MSW pickup system problem. Using georeferenced graphs generated by a geographical information system (GIS) and related programs, the performance of the three models was compared according to walking distance to a service stop, the coverage of a service stop, and the number of service stops. The results show that the SSL solution can shorten walking distances by approximately 10% and reduce the overlap of service areas covered.