Optimizing Urban Waste Collection Routes: Comparative Study of Shortest Path Algorithms

Collection of waste is one of the important goals of Waste Management Unit (WMU), where collecting waste decreases the amount of time, expenses, and the impact of waste collectors on the environment. The work is to create a set of routes for waste collection that will take minimal time to get through several collection centers given the capabilities of the collection vehicles, and road systems and traffic conditions. For waste collection points, ten major stations in Bengaluru were selected along with the disposal point. For this purpose, several algorithms such as Dijkstra's Algorithm, Bellman-Ford Algorithm, Floyd-Warshall Algorithm, Johnson's Algorithm, Nearest Neighbour Algorithm, and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) were designed and evaluated. Algorithms were measured based on parameters such as the time taken, the fuel consumed, the CO2 produced, the effectiveness of the trip that was made. The theoretical and applied objectives of the project correlate with the goals of the integration of improved optimization possibilities with operational issues with the purpose of defining such effective methods in relation to the containment of fuel consumption, the decrease in emissions and the waste management optimization in the urban environment.