Main Article Content
In-Town Tour Optimization of Conventional Mode for Municipal Solid Waste Collection
Abstract
This study illustrates the application of a simple and efficient Solver add-in tool in Microsoft Office Excel© 2010 software for in-town tour optimization of solid waste collection. Data required for tour optimization was obtained from the municipal authority, field studies, and a digitized map of Ilorin, Nigeria while collection operation was formulated as a Traveling Salesman Problem on Excel spreadsheet. The results obtained from the optimization of ten prominent routes revealed that two empirical routes had the same tour distance as the optimized tour. However, in the remaining eight routes, the optimization process reduced tour distance by 2.04-19.27 %, tour time by 0.33-22.80 %, and fuel consumption by 1.78-20.54 %. The cost incurred in purchasing diesel is also expected to decrease by US$0.11-US$1.65/vehicle/day. Therefore, the proposed method can serve as a valuable tool for reducing some socio-economic and environmental impacts associated with solid waste collection.