Optimal location of waste recycling plants by network-based facility location model

This paper proposed a network-based facility location model which is applicable to the optimal location of waste recycling plants. In the model, total cost of waste disposal process is composed of transportation cost of waste, cost of recycling, cost of final disposal and location cost for the recycling plants. In the recycling process, average cost is assumed to go down along the processing volume, while average final disposal cost is considered to increase because of capacity shortage of plants. In order to solve the location problem with those nonlinear cost functions, a network-based model was proposed instead of ordinary optimal location models based on linear programming structure. The model was applied to a hypothetical location problem in Hiroshima Prefecture, and it was shown that availability of final disposal facilities governs the optimal location of recycling plants.