Hazardous waste management system for Thailand’s local administrative organization via route and location selection

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study proposed a decision support system (DSS) for optimizing transportation routing and disposal hub location for Thailand’s local administrative organizations’ hazardous waste management. The first step is to choose the origin and destination, as well as to collect data for each route. Each route’s decision criteria were based on traffic quality and risk measures from the perspective of users. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to compute effective weights for decision criteria. To achieve optimal routing, AHP weights were combined with a zero-one goal programming technique. The DSS operates systematically and successfully, taking into account both transportation risk and socioeconomic factors, and provides appropriate routes. Overall, this waste management system may provide useful information to decision-makers for prioritizing disposal site alternatives and implementing feasible waste management actions. The zero-one location design was then used to determine the best hub location. Based on two scenarios of six and fifteen CoG hubs, the results revealed that the best model for managing a case company’s hazardous waste was to establish 15 hubs scattered throughout the country for collecting points and then transporting them to the waste disposal plant in Phitsanulok province. Locating the hub near sink points would reduce transportation costs and backhaul issues, reducing the environmental impact of GHG emissions and increasing system efficiency. Implications: The problem of waste pollution has become increasingly serious all over the world, particularly in developing countries that face significant pollution control challenges. End-of-life wastes cause economic, health, and environmental problems if they are not properly managed. As the world’s population and living standards rise, so does the amount of waste produced. The environmental impact is significant, with massive amounts of waste generated each year with only basic or minimal treatment to mitigate its impact. As a result, there is an urgent need for a method that can precisely optimize transportation routing and disposal hub location for Thailand’s local administrative organizations’ hazardous waste management (LAOs). The proposed decision support system (DSS) may provide useful information to decision-makers in prioritizing disposal site alternatives and implementing feasible waste management actions.