Transportation Cost as an Integral Part of Supply Chain Optimisation in the Field of Waste Management

Abstract

This paper deals with transportation cost modelling in the field of waste management. Waste transport from producers to the pre-processing facilities and/or plants for final treatment significantly contributes to overall processing cost and should be properly investigated to select the most convenient solution. The main goal of this paper is to describe comprehensive techno-economic model involving several types of transportation systems (for example collecting vehicles, transfer stations, intermodal container system). Each transportation system has been analysed according to its specific parameters that is transport distance, amount of waste transported, etc. The results of the calculation (for example specific cost per ton and kilometer) then serve as inputs for detailed supply chain optimisation involving complex networks. Correct implementation of transportation cost with relation to other system key parameters (for example distance, capacity of waste) enables getting more reliable output data. In the paper, authors described methods of optimisation task simplification without losing exactness of real solution. The impact on computational time will be addressed and concrete results related to real industrial case study in the field of waste-to-energy is presented.