Estimation of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in a Waste Collection Vehicle Routing Problem

Fazlini Hashim; Aida Mauziah Benjamin; Syariza Abdul-Rahman

Authors

Fazlini Hashim Institute of Strategic Industrial Decision Modeling (ISIDM), School of Quantitative Sciences, UniversitiUtara Malaysia, UUM Sintok, 06010, Kedah, Malaysia
Aida Mauziah Benjamin Institute of Strategic Industrial Decision Modeling (ISIDM), School of Quantitative Sciences, UniversitiUtara Malaysia, UUM Sintok, 06010, Kedah, MalaysiaARTICLE INFOABSTRACTArticle history:Received 2 September 2018Received in revised form 19 December 2018Accepted 27 December2018Available online 13 January 2019Recently there has been increasing concern regarding environmental impacts due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by waste collection activities, apart from the active industrialization efforts. In this context, evaluation of environmental impacts in Waste Collection Vehicle Routing Problem (WCVRP) is highlighted. As such, this paper investigated CO2 emissions based on solution derived from a prior study of the benchmark waste collection problem. With that, the fuel-based and distance-based methods had been employed to estimate CO2 emissions. Both methods were selected due to their applicability and suitability in the estimation of CO2 for WCVRP. The results showed that the distance-based method produced less value of CO2 emissions (approximately 7.1 % decrement) and lower value of fuel consumption (approximately 1.77 % of fuel saving), when compared to the fuel-based method. Besides, it is important to note that the reduction of CO2 emitted depends on distance travelled, fuel consumption, and emission factors. Thus, reductionin travelled distances and fuel usage do aid in mitigating vehicle emissions.Keywords:Waste collection Vehicle Routing Problem (WCVRP), fuel-basedmethod, distance-based method, CO2 emissionsCopyright © 2019PENERBIT AKADEMIA BARU -All rights reserved1.Introduction Since 2006, concerns on environmental impacts of the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) have increased[1] due to several sustainability issues, such as increment in the level of carbon emissions that results in high pollution[2,3] and high generation of waste[4]. According toHan and Ponce-Cueto [4], there is scarcity of studies in attempting to combine economic and environmental objectives. As for VRP, most of the prior studies preferred to minimise economic impacts, including operational costs[5].Moreover, environmental concern has become an important issue due to the increasing population growth and waste generation. Hence, better utilisation of vehicles in thevehicle routing system should be ascertained in order to achieve a sustainable transportation system.Corresponding author.E-mail address: rfh_615@yahoo.com (Fazlini Hashim)OpenAccess
Syariza Abdul-Rahman Institute of Strategic Industrial Decision Modeling (ISIDM), School of Quantitative Sciences, UniversitiUtara Malaysia, UUM Sintok, 06010, Kedah, Malaysia

Keywords:

Waste collection Vehicle Routing Problem (WCVRP), fuel-basedmethod, distance-based method, CO2 emissions

Abstract

Recently there has been increasing concern regarding environmental impacts due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by waste collection activities, apart from the active industrialization efforts. In this context, evaluation of environmental impacts in Waste Collection Vehicle Routing Problem (WCVRP) is highlighted. As such, this paper investigated CO2 emissions based on solution derived from a prior study of the benchmark waste collection problem. With that, the fuel-based and distance-based methods had been employed to estimate CO2 emissions. Both methods were selected due to their applicability and suitability in the estimation of CO2 for WCVRP. The results showed that the distance-based method produced less value of CO2 emissions (approximately 7.1 % decrement) and lower value of fuel consumption (approximately 1.77 % of fuel saving), when compared to the fuel-based method. Besides, it is important to note that the reduction of CO2 emitted depends on distance travelled, fuel consumption, and emission factors. Thus, reductionin travelled distances and fuel usage do aid in mitigating vehicle emissions.