Sustainable supply chain network design for the optimal utilization of municipal solid waste

The growing waste generation, increasing environmental regulations, and limited land area for waste disposal necessitate an effective and efficient waste supply chain management solution in terms of both socioeconomic perspectives and environmental sustainability. Waste management is connected to supply chain decisions as it involves waste generation, collection, separation, transportation, processing, and disposal. Accordingly, this article develops a mixed integer linear programming model for the optimal planning of a waste management system in a multi-echelon supply chain network, which aims to find a trade-off between supply chain costs, depletion of waste, and efficient use of generated waste while considering the environmental impacts. Various recycling and waste-to-energy technologies are used to convert plastic and mixed waste into value-added products including fuel, electricity, and heat. Although recycling is preferable from an environmental point of view, it is shown that the waste-to-energy option is more economically efficient. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 65: e16464 2019