A multiobjective GRASP–VND algorithm to solve the waste collection problem

Abstract

In this paper, the waste collection problem (WCP) of a city in the south of Spain is addressed as a multi-objective routing problem that considers three objectives. From the company’s perspective, the minimization of the travel cost is desired as well as that of the total number of vehicles. Additionally, from the employee’s point of view, a set of balanced routes is also sought. Four variants of a multi-objective hybrid algorithm are proposed. Specifically, a GRASP (greedy randomized adaptive search procedure) with a VND (variable neighborhood descent) is combined. The best GRASP–VND algorithm found is applied in order to solve the real-world WCP of a city in the south of Spain.