A Bi-level Meta-heuristic Approach for a Hazardous Waste Management Problem

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 School of Industrial Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 School of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Industrial Engineering, Nowshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Nowshahr, Iran

Abstract

This study concentrates on designing a medical waste management system with a hierarchical structure, including a local government and a waste management planner. The upper-level seeks to design and control the waste management facilities by minimizing the environmental risks related to the disposal of medical waste. While, the lower-level model is to determine the waste collection plans by only minimizing its total operational costs. Therefore, this study develops a bi-level mathematical model, in which the benefits of the both stakeholders are taken into account. As this problem poses difficulty in searching for the optimal solution, a bi-level meta-heuristic approach based on the Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed for solving the problem. Finally, a case study is conducted to show that the proposed model and solution approach are practical and efficient.

Keywords

International Journal of Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 7
TRANSACTIONS A: Basics
July 2020
Pages 1304-1310

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