The vehicle routing problem associated with residual frying oil collection: a case study

Abstract

A key element in the strategy of logistics companies is the return of waste after its generation, as in the case of residual frying oil which, when disposed improperly into the sewerage system, causes damage to the sewage system itself, rivers and soil. In this context, we sought to study and propose solutions to the problem of routing vehicles with simultaneous pickup and delivery, time windows associated with the collection of plastic drums full of used frying oil and delivery of empty plastic drums to establishments. Eighteen scenarios were created to test alternative solutions to the problem, where parameters such as the type of vehicle pickup and delivery, heterogeneous fleet, different locations of the depot and heuristics to generate the routes were evaluated. Given the proposed scenarios, we obtained the fleet and the most appropriate routes for realisation of the residual frying oil collection.