Now We Are Talking Trash

A nameless company in a densely populated metropolitan landscape far away considers opening a new landfill. The location of the new landfill and the time at which it becomes operational impact the overall waste transportation costs of large trash haulers. Furthermore, landfill ownership influences which landfills trash haulers prefer to use; i.e., trash haulers prefer to use landfills owned by the same parent company when possible. We seek an optimal allocation of waste to minimize overall transportation costs while adhering to landfill-ownership preference constraints.