Reduction of air pollution through an alternative system of waste collection: The introduction of an underground waste container system

Gläser S, Stücken M. Reduction of air pollution through an alternative system of waste collection: The introduction of an underground waste container system. In: Ban M, Duic N, Schneider DR, et al., eds. Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems . Zagreb: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, Zagreb ; 2020.Air pollution is a substantial environmental health risk in Europe. The municipal activity of waste collection contributes to air pollution. When collecting household waste via a door-to-door collection system the collection vehicles drive down all streets to empty the bins on the curb. In this paper we therefore deal with the question of whether the introduction of an underground waste container system, in which waste would be collected at central locations in so-called underground waste containers with a much larger capacity, is a sensible alternative that leads to less traffic and therefore less air pollution. We compare the costs of the two systems using two different optimization problems. On the basis of extended, artificial instances from the literature, we show the great potential for cost reduction of an underground waste collection system in comparison to a door-to-door collection system. The distances to be covered by the refuse collection vehicles can be significantly reduced, which is particularly important in times of air pollution