sustainability

Article
Multi-Objective Vehicle Routing Problem for Waste
Classification and Collection with Sustainable Concerns:
The Case of Shanghai City
Jian Zhou , Meixi Zhang and Sisi Wu *

School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +86-21-6613-4414-805

Abstract: With the promotion of an ecological civilization philosophy and a sustainable development
strategy, solid waste classification and collection has become an emerging issue in China. Based on
the three dimensions of sustainable development, namely economy, society, and environment, the
route optimization model of waste collection and transportation is constructed. In order to solve the
model aiming to maximize the benefits of sanitation companies under the constraints of workload
balance, transportation cleanliness, and route changes due to cost factors, we combine the non-
dominated sorting genetic algorithm III with simulated annealing. According to the characteristics of
the problem, the probabilistic insertion method is incorporated to generate the initial solution, and
the adaptive mutation operator is added to improve the population diversity. Finally, a real case
in Xuhui District, Shanghai, a megacity taking the lead in 2019 in mandating a separated collection
policy, is presented to verify the proposed model’s performance. The results provide a decision
solution for dispatching the collection route of vehicles with some references for sanitary companies.

Keywords: solid waste; waste classification and collection; vehicle routing optimization; workload
Citation: Zhou, J.; Zhang, M.; Wu, S. balance; NSGA-III
Multi-Objective Vehicle Routing
Problem for Waste Classification and
Collection with Sustainable Concerns:
The Case of Shanghai City. 1. Introduction
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498.
Since entering the 21st century, China’s municipal solid waste output has always
https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811498
been maintained at 100 million tons and presented an increasing trend year by year. The
Academic Editor: Rui Cunha Chinese government introduced several regulations about waste classification (http://
Marques www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-03/30/content_5182124.htm (accessed on 15 June
Received: 13 August 2022
2022)) to protect the environment and save resources. By November 2019, there had been
Accepted: 8 September 2022
237 prefecture-level cities in China that began to classify waste, among which Shanghai
Published: 14 September 2022
took the lead in implementing the compulsory waste classification policy [1] and classified
the solid waste into wet waste, dry waste, recyclable waste, and hazardous waste [2].
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral
According to the field investigation, the waste collection in Shanghai is mainly under-
with regard to jurisdictional claims in
taken by local sanitation companies in various districts. At the beginning, many wet waste
published maps and institutional affil-
trucks were converted from dry waste ones, inevitably bringing on an adverse impact to
iations.
the environment, such as exuding unpleasant gas, spreading diseases in high-temperature
weather, and causing a leakage problem during transportation [3]. Moreover, implementing
classified collection requires more human resources, whereas the personnel of the company
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
does not increase on a large scale. Thus, the existing employees need to take on heavier tasks
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. than before. The employees’ satisfaction will directly influence their motivation to work [4],
This article is an open access article so balancing the workload of employees has become one of the urgent problems to be solved.
distributed under the terms and With consideration of the above environmental and workload balancing issues, this
conditions of the Creative Commons paper constructs a vehicle routing optimization model for waste collection and transporta-
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// tion, so as to provide some guidance and suggestions for the practical decision making. To
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ the best of our knowledge, there are relatively few studies that consider both waste leakage
4.0/). and workload balance among employees under the premise of considering the economy.

Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811498 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 2 of 25

Therefore, it is necessary to conduct more in-depth research for this problem. In addition,
China needs to deal with a large amount of domestic waste every year, and the collection
and transportation costs account for more than half of the total cost. Therefore, optimizing
the vehicle route and personnel allocation of the waste collection system can improve the
recycling and utilization efficiency of waste resources, which is of great significance for the
construction of resource-saving and environment-friendly cities.
The contributions of this research are as follows: First, from the perspective of practice,
taking into account the three factors of sustainable development, the multi-objective vehicle
routing optimization model for collecting two kinds of waste is constructed. Second, combin-
ing the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm III (NSGA-III) with the probabilistic insertion
method, the Metropolis criterion of the simulated annealing algorithm, and the adaptive mu-
tation operator, an effective improved NSGA-III algorithm is designed. Third, the real case
of waste collection in the Xuhui District of Shanghai is carried out, and some management
insights are given to propose a comprehensive waste collection program, which can ensure a
certain market share and enhance the core competitiveness of the sanitation company.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the research re-
lated to the vehicle routing problem (VRP) with route balancing and reverse logistics.
Section 3 presents the mathematical model of the VRP for classified waste collection.
Section 4 specifies the improved NASG-III algorithm. Section 5 compares the performance
of the proposed algorithm with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II)
and the classic NSGA-III. Section 6 studies the case of Xuhui, Shanghai, and provides some
management insights. Section 7 gives the conclusion and future research direction.

2. Literature Review
2.1. VRP in Reverse Logistics
Since the 1990s, the increasing pressure brought by a resource shortage and envi-
ronmental issues has prompted scholars to focus on the development of reverse logis-
tics. There are four types of reverse logistics networks, i.e., repair, reuse, remanufacture,
and recycle, and solid waste collection is one of the main application areas of recycling.
Lieckens et al. [5] designed a profit-maximizing stochastic model for a multi-product,
multi-level structured network. Vahdani et al. [6] proposed a bi-objective model to design
reliable networks for two-way facilities under uncertain conditions. Eskandarpour et al. [7]
designed a network, including primary customers, collection/redistribution centers, re-
cycling disposal centers, and secondary customers, in an integrated seven-tier recycling
network. Chaabane et al. [8] studied a new reverse logistics routing problem for end-of-life
vehicle recycling, combining the classical VRP with the pickup problem and additional
constraints (e.g., loading pickup sequences, time windows, multiple trips, heterogeneous
internal fleets, and external carriers). Delle et al. [9] proposed a solution strategy based
on an integer linear programming model with the aim of improving the efficiency of the
allocation of cleaners in urban neighborhoods by determining the leaf bag storage points
and routes followed by leaf bag collection vehicles. Delgado-Antequera et al. [10] modeled
a real waste collection problem as a VRP with capacity constraints and two objectives:
travel cost minimization and routing balancing.

2.2. VRP with Route Balancing

The VRP with route balancing is an extension of the basic VRP, which aims at minimiz-
ing the total distance and balancing the workload of employees. Galindres-Guancha et al. [11]
proposed a mathematical model, considering both economic and workload balance objec-
tives, and designed an approximation method based on iterative local search metaheuristics
and decomposition to solve it. Mancini et al. [12] introduced the collaborative VRP with time
consistency, service consistency, and workload balance. Raa et al. [13] proposed a powerful
metaheuristic solution which could adequately balance vehicle travel routes, cycle inventory,
and various costs. Zhang et al. [14] developed two multi-objective local search algorithms
for simultaneously solving the problem of minimizing the total travel cost and balancing
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 3 of 25

the profit of transportation companies. Zhang et al. [15] introduced the model minimizing
the maximal routing cost to effectively avoid the occurrence of distortion solutions and
developed a multi-objective modal algorithm to obtain the Pareto optimal solution for a
VRP with route balancing. In addition, Castaneda et al. [16] proposed a multi-objective
approach and an iterative local search metaheuristic to solve the green VRP with private
fleets and public carriers. Lehuede et al. [17] studied a lexicographically minimax approach
based on the social choice theory and developed a fair model to solve the VRP with route
balancing. Janssens et al. [18] constructed a VRP based on region partitioning that allowed
minimizing the total distance while balancing the workload of different vehicles and pro-
posed a solution algorithm with a multi-neighborhood forbidden search heuristic to solve
this problem. Huang et al. [19] set the maximum allowable workload difference to balance
the workload in the periodic routing problem and solved it with the local branching method.
Wang and Lin [20] used a two-stage approach in considering the VRP problem with un-
certain transportation time, converting various factors into costs, and finally applying real
arithmetic examples to test the effect of the approach.

2.3. Green VRP

With the implementation of sustainable development strategies, pollution reduction
and environmental protection have become equally topical issues attracting attention when
addressing VRPs, and carbon emission is a common indicator measuring environmental
impact. Cai et al. [21] investigated a new green VRP arranging connected and automated ve-
hicles to meet customer needs and minimize carbon emissions. Liu and Liao [22] proposed
a carbon emission and total cost minimization model, simplified it with k-means clustering,
and developed a three-stage method for the solution. Liao [23] proposed formulations
and a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm to solve the online VRP minimizing costs related to
economics and emissions. Zhang et al. [24] incorporated fuel cost, carbon emission cost, and
vehicle usage cost into the traditional VRP and established a low-carbon routing problem
model. Considering the distribution cost and carbon emission, Bai et al. [25] proposed
a mathematical optimization model and employed the improved NSGA-II algorithm to
obtain the Pareto frontal solution set.
Waste management includes waste classification and collection, which itself is with the
original intention of environmental protection. In the field of waste collection, Erdem [26] con-
sidered multiple types of wastes, optimized waste collection procedures, and transportation
operations in a sustainable way and developed an adaptive variable neighborhood search
algorithm to solve the electric waste collection problem efficiently. Wu et al. [27] addressed
the optimization of urban wet waste collection and transportation in China by combining
the carbon emission cost with traditional waste management costs from an environmental
perspective. Akhtar et al. [28] presented an improved backtracking search algorithm using
the smart bin concept to find the best optimized waste collection routing solution for the
capacitated VRP. Hannan et al. [29] proposed an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO)
algorithm for a capacitated VRP model, which provided the best route in terms of travel
distance, waste collection efficiency, etc. Tirkolaee et al. [30] studied a sustainable periodic
capacitated arc routing problem for municipal solid waste collection, in which the objectives
are to simultaneously minimize the total cost and environmental emissions, maximize citi-
zenship satisfaction, and minimize workload deviation. Yazdani et al. [31] proposed a novel
simulation method that used a hybrid genetic algorithm to optimize the VRP from construc-
tion projects to recycling facilities. Rabbani et al. [32] presented a stochastic multi-objective
model covering location, vehicle routing, and inventory control in the context of industrial
hazardous waste management. And they presented a model for sustainable municipal solid
waste management systems, emphasizing recycling and waste-to-energy technologies [33].
Babaee et al. [34] studied a multi-trip VRP, of which the goal was to minimize the travel cost
and penalty cost of tardiness. They also proposed a model based on the fuzzy credibility
theory for the uncertainty of the waste amount generated in urban areas [35].
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 4 of 25

2.4. VRP with Multi-Product

In most of the existing literature on reverse logistics, scholars tended to study VRPs
with a single product, or merely considered the transportation of a multi-product but did not
reflect their characteristics in the objective function (e.g., [36–39]). Asefi et al. [40] developed bi-
objective mixed-integer linear programming to concurrently minimize the transportation cost
in the entire waste management system and the total deviation from the fair load allocation
to transfer stations. Soleimani et al. [41] proposed a multi-objective non-linear programming
model for the delivery and pickup VRP of original and remanufactured end-of-life products.
The literature above is summarized in Table 1. As we can see, while there have been
many studies about VRPs involving reverse logistics, most of them considered only one or
two of the economic, social, and environmental factors, and only a few studies considered
all of them at the same time. In addition, most papers investigated the single-product
VRP, and very few studies focused on the problem of multi-product routing optimization.
Furthermore, from the environmental perspective, most studies focused on the carbon
emissions, ignoring the leakage during the wet waste collection process.
Different from most of the existing research, this paper starts from the actual needs,
constructs a multi-objective, multi-product routing optimization model for the dry and wet
waste classified collection problem, and develops an improved NSGA-III algorithm to solve
the model whose objective functions cover economic, social, and environmental factors.

Table 1. Literature related to VRP with sustainable concerns.

Objective Product Categories Direction

Author Single-Product Multi-Product Algorithm
Eco Soc Env Reverse Forward
Lieckens et al. [5] X X X Differential evolution algorithm
Vahdani et al. [6] X X X Fuzzy programming approaches
Eskandarpour et al. [7] X X X Tabu search metaheuristic
Chaabane et al. [8] X X X Two-phased heuristic
Delle et al. [9] X X X Heuristic algorithm
Delgado-Antequera et al. [10] X X X MNI
Galindres et al. [11] X X X X ILS/D
Mancini et al. [12] X X X X LS
Raa et al. [13] X X X X PBLS
Zhang et al. [14] X X X X MOLS
Zhang et al. [15] X X X X MMA
Londono et al. [16] X X X X X ILS
Lehuede et al. [17] X X X X MDLS
Janssens et al. [18] X X X X MNFS
Huang et al. [19] X X X LB
Wang et al. [20] X X X X X LS
Cai et al. [21] X X X HPSO
Liu et al. [22] X X X X CW-ALNS
Liao [23] X X X X GA-TS
Zhang et al. [24] X X X X RS-TS
Bai et al. [25] X X X X INSGA-II
Erdem [26] X X X X AVNS
Wu et al. [27] X X X X PSO-SA
Akhtar et al. [28] X X X X BSA
Hannan et al. [29] X X X X PSO
Tirkolaee et al. [30] X X X X X MOSA-MOIWOA
Yazdani et al. [31] X X X GA
Rabbani et al. [32] X X X X NSGA-II and Monte Carlo simulation
Rabbani et al. [33] X X X X X Lexicographic
Babaee et al. [34] X X X SA
Babaee et al. [35] X X X ACO
Liang et al. [36] X X X ALNS
Asefi et al. [37] X X X CPLEX
Akbarpour et al. [38] X X X Metaheuristic algorithms
Hina et al. [39] X X X Geospatial techniques
Asefi et al. [40] X X X X Lexicographic optimization
Soleimani et al. [41] X X X X Fuzzy approach
Our paper X X X X X Improved NSGA-III
Note: MNI, ILS/D, PBLS, MOLS, MMA, ILS, MDLS, MNFS, CW-ALNS, RS-TS, AVNS, BSA, and MOSA-MOIWOA
stand for multi-neighborhood improvement, iterated local search metaheuristic and decomposition, population-based
local search, multi-objective local search, multi-objective memetic algorithm, iterated local search, multi-directional
local search, multi-neighborhood forbidden search, Clarke and Wright algorithm and an adaptive large neighborhood
search, route-splitting tabu search, adaptive variable neighborhood search, backtracking search algorithm, multi-
objective simulated annealing algorithm, and multi-objective invasive weed optimization algorithm.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 5 of 25

3. Problem Formulation
3.1. Problem Description
The waste classification policy by the Shanghai Municipal Government requires dry
and wet wastes to be collected separately, and the sanitation companies face a daunting
challenge with purchasing new vehicles, adjusting staff scheduling, the reformulation of
routes, and a host of other issues that need to be reconsidered.
This paper investigates the problem of routing optimization and collection of dry
and wet waste, which is considered in an integrated manner from the three pillars of
sustainable development, first discussing the two types of products separately from the
economic and environmental aspects and integrating the transportation problems of the
two types of products from the social aspect. From an economic point of view, the objective
of minimizing the collection routes of dry and wet waste is considered. In addition, from
an environmental point of view, the objective of minimizing the leakage of wet waste is
considered. Finally, from the social perspective, the workload balance between employees
handling different types of waste is considered. The transportation process is shown in
Figure 1, and its model description diagram is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. The collection and transportation process.

Figure 2. The model description diagram.

In this scenario, the waste trucks depart from the starting point and arrive at the waste
disposal site after passing a number of customers in a day, and each customer needs to be
served once by a dry and a wet waste truck. The journey of a truck from the starting point
to the waste disposal site is taken as a route, and there is no limit to the number of routes
traveled by each truck per day. Through the optimal combination of different routes, the
effective allocation of vehicle resources is achieved while reducing the amount of leakage.
In addition, it is necessary to consider the workload balance between employees with
different work, and this paper analyzes the length of the routes to derive the optimization
of the employee’s efficiency.

3.2. Assumptions and Indices

This paper abstracts and simplifies certain mathematical problems, among which the
specific assumptions are as follows:

Assumption 1. The locations of the starting point, customer, and waste disposal site are known,
and there is only one starting point and one waste disposal site.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 6 of 25

Assumption 2. The dry and wet wastes are, respectively, transported by a fleet of fixed-size waste
trucks, and the two types of vehicles are sufficient and there is no shortage problem.

Assumption 3. The employees collecting dry and wet wastes are independent, and there is a fixed
upper limit for the employees’ daily working hours.

Assumption 4. As long as the workload does not exceed the upper limit, the trucks can return to
the starting point and start again after reaching the waste disposal site.

Assumption 5. An employee works with only one truck on a single day, and the employee’s
workload can be measured by the route length of the truck.

Assumption 6. Wet waste may leak, and the degree of leakage is related to the leakage probability,
amount of waste carried, and travel distance.

The sets, parameters, and decision variables are defined as in Table 2.

Table 2. Sets, parameters, and decision variables in model.

Indices and Sets

N the set of all points, including starting, customer, and waste disposal
site, where 0 represents the starting point and 1 represents the waste
disposal site
N0 the set of all customers
the index of starting points, customers, and waste disposal sites,
i,j
i, j ∈ N
k the index of recovered vehicles
K g(s) the set of all vehicles
Parameters
dij the distance from vertex i to j, i, j ∈ N
g(s)
ci the waste production of vertex i, i ∈ N 0
L g(s) the maximum load of a waste truck
v g(s) the average speed of a waste truck
D the upper limit of the single-day driving distance of the waste truck
T the maximum number of hours an employee can work in a single day
β the probability of leakage during the travel
Decision variables
the 0–1 variable that measures whether the routing from vertex i to
g(s)
xijk vertex j is covered in k. If the routing is covered, the corresponding
value is 1; otherwise 0, i, j ∈ N
g(s) the 0–1 variable, when vertex i is served by vehicle k takes the value of
yik 1; otherwise 0, i ∈ N 0
the 0–1 variable, takes the value 1 when vertex i is served by waste
g(s) truck k before j, and i, j is on the same route; when i, j are at the same
yijk point and served by a waste truck, the variable indicates that i is served
by k and takes the value of 1; otherwise 0, i, j ∈ N 0
the 0–1 variable, when vertices i, j are served by waste truck k on the
g(s) same route, the value is 1; when i, j are at the same point, the variable
zijk indicates that i is served by k and takes the value 1; otherwise 0,
i, j ∈ N 0

Based on the above problem description and assumptions, we need to construct the
intermediate variables measuring the length of each route and workload of each employee,
so as to facilitate the subsequent analysis and construction of the objective function.
From the starting point, the total distance contains the distances of both wet and dry
waste trucks. The expressions for each vehicle’s travel distance is as follows:
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 7 of 25

g(s) g(s)
Dk = ∑ ∑ xijk dij , k ∈ K g(s) , (1)
i∈ N j∈ N

g(s)
where dij is the distance between i and j, Dk is the distance traveled by vehicle k.
According to Assumption 5, an employee follows only one truck throughout the day,
and the workload of the employee can be measured by the running time of the truck. The
expression is as follows:

g(s)
t k = Dk /v g(s) , k ∈ K g(s) , (2)
g(s)
where Dk is the total length of the route traveled by vehicle k.
According to Assumption 6, the current load weight of the vehicle as it passes through
each vertex needs to be considered for calculating the degree of leakage. The amount of
wet waste when the vehicle passes through point i is

lis = ∑ s cs ,
∑ yijk j i ∈ N0, (3)
j∈ N 0 k∈K s

where csj denotes the amount of wet waste at point j. Adding up the amount of wet waste
at all eligible points is the current load of the wet waste truck when it reaches point i.

3.3. Mathematical Model

Based on the above problem description, this paper considers the separate collection
and transportation process of dry and wet wastes; proposes the three objectives of minimiz-
ing the total distance, balancing the workload, and minimizing the total amount of leakage
from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives; and proposes the constraints in
terms of vehicle transportation route selection, the employee working time, and vehicle
load. The mathematical model is expressed as follows:
!
∑g Dk + ∑ s Dks
g
min (4)
k∈K k∈K
!
min g
max | x − y| (5)
x,y∈{ Dk ,Dks | k ∈K g ,K s }

min ∑ 0 ∑ ∑ s βxijk
s s
li dij (6)
i∈ N j∈ N k∈K

Subject to
∑
g(s)
yik = 1, i ∈ N0 (7)
k ∈ K g(s)

∑ 0 x0ik ∑ 0 xi1k
g(s) g(s)
= , k ∈ K g(s) (8)
i∈ N i∈ N

∑ 0 ∑ 0 xijk ∑ 0 yik ∑ 0 x0ik

g(s) g(s) g(s)
= − , k ∈ K g(s) (9)
i∈ N j∈ N i∈ N i∈ N

∑ ∑ ∑ ∑
g(s) g(s)
xijk = x jik = 1, j ∈ N0 (10)
i ∈ N k ∈ K g(s) i ∈ N k ∈ K g(s)

∑ 0 zijk
g(s) g(s)
ci ≤ L g(s) , k ∈ K g(s) , j ∈ N 0 (11)
i∈ N
g(s)
Dk /v g(s) ≤ T, k ∈ K g(s) (12)

∑ xijk
g(s) g(s)
= yik , i ∈ N 0 , k ∈ K g(s) (13)
j∈ N
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 8 of 25

∑ xijk
g(s) g(s)
= y jk , j ∈ N 0 , k ∈ K g(s) (14)
i∈ N
g(s) g(s) g(s)
xijk ≤ yijk ≤ zijk , i, j ∈ N, k ∈ K g(s) (15)
g(s) g(s) g(s) g(s)
xijk , yik , yijk , zijk ∈ {0, 1}, ∀i, j ∈ N, ∀k ∈ K g(s) (16)

Equation (4) is to minimize the total travel distance; Equation (5) is to balance the
workload of employees, minimizing the maximum distance difference between the vehicles
driven by the employees responsible for the two types of waste in a day; and Equation (6)
is to minimize the total leakage, which is related to the amount of wet waste carried and
length of the route.
Equations (7)–(10) are constraints on the vehicle route, Equation (11) is the capacity
constraint, and Equation (12) limits the maximal working hour an employee can work
in a single day. Equations (13)–(16) state the interconnections and constraints between
decision variables.
The model constructed in this paper is a multi-objective 0–1 integer nonlinear pro-
gramming, and the commonly used software, such as CPLEX, cannot directly solve it.
Additionally, in practical waste collection problems, the number of customer points are rel-
atively huge in size, which will increase the dimensionality and constraints of the decision
variables and the computational complexity, and the traditional algorithms, such as branch-
and-bound and cut-plane, are not suitable for solving such large-scale problems. Therefore,
a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm needs to be designed for solving the problem.

4. Solution Method
4.1. Basic Principle of NSGA-III Algorithm
NSGA-III algorithm [42] is a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm that makes im-
provements on the basis of NSGA-II, which is inspired by scholars based on the law of
biological selection, elimination, and survival of the fittest in nature. The algorithm treats
all decision variables as a chromosome or an individual and uses the objective function as
the evaluation criterion for the fitness. In each iteration, chromosomes are selected, crossed,
and mutated, so that the fitness value is gradually enhanced and the chromosome can be
easier to survive to the next iteration.
The main idea of NSGA-III is to introduce a reference point mechanism based on
NSGA-II [43] and to retain individuals close to the reference point. The main difference
between the two algorithms is the change in the selection mechanism and criteria for
judging the merit of Pareto’s rank. NSGA-III adapts the crowding degree ranking and
introduces widely distributed reference points to ensure the diversity of the retained
populations in each iteration.
Unlike the MOEA/D algorithm [44], NSGA-III does not require any additional pa-
rameters setting during execution. Moreover, its excellent ability to solve many different
types of multi-objective problems and handle a small number of user-supplied structured
or randomly assigned reference points has been widely tested. Therefore, it is suitable for
multi-objective preference-based optimization and decision making, and this paper solves
the proposed problem by improving the NSGA-III algorithm.

4.2. Improved NSGA-III Algorithm

The improved NSGA-III makes improvements in three aspects: firstly, the generated
initial solution is optimized using the probabilistic insertion method; secondly, the Metropo-
lis criterion of the simulated annealing algorithm is added in the crossover process to accept
inferior solutions after a crossover with certain probability; and thirdly, the adaptive muta-
tion operator is added in the mutation process to ensure population diversity. This paper
focuses on the specific improvements and simplifies the overall steps of the algorithm;
please refer to Deb [42] and Ishibuchi [45] for detailed steps.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 9 of 25

4.2.1. Initial Solution Generation

The initial solution of VRPs is usually generated by random generation method [46],
nearest insertion method [47], greedy algorithm [48], sweep algorithm [49], probabilistic
insertion method, etc. And we improved the nearest insertion method by combining it
with the nearest neighbor and saving methods for solving the VRP.
The principal of the proposed improved probabilistic insertion method is to determine
the order of all the customer points based on the length of route, weight of waste, and
vehicle’s capacity. Take the wet waste as example; the specific process of the method for
generating a chromosome is described as Algorithm 1.

Algorithm 1 Processes of the improved probabilistic insertion method

1: Determine a route with only two points, i.e., the starting point and the waste disposal site.
2: Find out the set of customer points meet the load constraint.
3: Select the customer point with a certain probability which is inversely proportional
to the product of route length and wet waste weight, insert it into the position before
the endpoint of the current route, and take it as the starting point for selecting the next
customer point to be inserted.
4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the vehicle is fully loaded or its remaining capacity is less
than the weight of waste at any customer point.
5: Start a new route when the vehicle’s capacity is exceeded and repeat steps 1 to 4 until
all the customer points are inserted to the route.

4.2.2. The Steps of the Improved NSGA-III

The steps of the improved NSGA-III are as follows:
Step 1: Coding. Because the customer points are discretely distributed, this paper
adopts the natural number coding method. Set the departure point as 1, the waste disposal
site as M, and all the customers as 2, 3, ..., M − 1, respectively.
Step 2: Initialization. Use the probabilistic insertion method to generate the initial
solution of wet waste with the smallest possible total amount of leakage and the initial
solution of dry waste with the smallest possible total distance. Set the basic parameters,
such as the size of the problem and population, the crossover and mutation probability,
and the number of iterations.
Step 3: Adaptation decoding. Calculate the fitness value of each chromosome and
record as a triple consisting of three objective function values. And then calculate the
average fitness value of all the chromosomes for evaluating the overall quality of the
solution set.
Step 4: Non-dominance ranking. Find the individuals that are not dominated by
others in the population and record them as Pareto rank 1; remove the individuals with
Pareto rank 1, find the individuals that are not dominated by others in the remaining set
and mark them as Pareto rank 2; repeat the above operations until all the individuals are
marked with Pareto rank.
Step 5: Crossover. Utilize the Metropolis criterion to compare the superiority and
inferiority of the incidental and offspring chromosomes. When the new solution obtained
by crossover is inferior to the old one, accept the inferior solutions with a certain probability:
g
Pm = Pm · α g , (17)
g
where g is the current number of iterations, Pm is the mutation probability at the gth itera-
tion, Pm is the initial mutation probability, and α is 1.005 (α is a random number from 1.001
to 1.4). As the iteration progresses, the mutation probability becomes progressively larger.
The operation is stopped when all the alternative chromosomes have completed
the crossover operation and a new population is obtained. At the same time, the best
individuals that have emerged so far in the population during the evolutionary process are
replicated to the next generation by an elite retention strategy.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 10 of 25

Step 6: Mutation. Record the elements in some segments of selected individuals, and
add an adaptive mutation operator to increase the mutation probability with iteration at
this point. The same elite retention strategy is used throughout the mutation process. The
mutation probability is calculated by
g)
y = ed/(λ (18)
where d is the difference between the normalized summed average of the three objective
functions of the superior solution before each iteration and that of the inferior solution
after, λ is 0.99 (λ is a random number from 0 to 1), and g is the current number of iterations.
Because d takes a negative value, the acceptance probability of the inferior solution will
gradually become smaller as the iteration proceeds.
Step 7: Select new population. Merge the parent and offspring populations that have
undergone crossover and mutation, and retain the individuals with higher fitness values to
form a new population for the next iteration.
Step 8: Terminate iteration. The algorithm stops when the fitness values in the Pareto
solution set obtained at each iteration do not change within L generations.
Step 9: Output Pareto solution set. Select the individuals with Pareto rank 1 after
each generation of completed iterations is merged, and form the final Pareto solution set.
The framework of the improved NSGA-III is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. The improved NSGA-III algorithm framework.

Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 11 of 25

5. Performance Verification
In Section 4, the improved NSGA-III uses the improved probabilistic insertion method
to generate the initial waste collection route and adds the Metropolis criterion of the
simulated annealing algorithm and the adaptive mutation operator to ensure population
diversity. In this section, we validate the initialization process and compare the proposed
algorithm with the classic NSGA-II and NSGA-III to verify its effectiveness.

5.1. Experimental Design

In this paper, the Solomon standard datasets are used for testing (Source of Solomon
dataset: http://w.cba.neu.edu/msolomon/problems.htm (accessed on 20 June 2022)).
These datasets are randomly generated based on certain distribution characteristics, con-
taining information such as the X- and Y-coordinate axes of each point, customer number
and their demands, vehicle number, and their load capacity. The Solomon datasets can be
divided into three categories according to the distribution types: R-type with a random
distribution of customer points, C-type with an aggregated distribution of customer points,
and RC-type with both of them.
In this paper, we have selected six datasets containing 100 customer points for verifica-
tion, and the parameters of them are shown in Table 3. The leakage coefficient β is assumed
as 0.0001, the travel speed is 50 km/h, and the maximum working hour is 8.

Table 3. Parameters of standard dataset.

Categories Number of Customers Vehicle Capacity Type of Data Number of Files

C1 100 200 Cluster distribution 9

C2 100 700 Cluster distribution 8
R1 100 200 Random distribution 12
R2 100 1000 Random distribution 11
RC1 100 200 Mixed distribution 8
RC2 100 1000 Mixed distribution 8

5.2. Initial Solution Comparison Analysis

First, the proposed probabilistic insertion method considering the total distance or
leakage is compared with the random generation method, greedy algorithm, and nearest
insertion method. The locations of the points and demands of dry waste are extracted from
dataset RC101, and the demands of wet waste are from dataset C102. All the demands are
roughly between 10 and 50 tons. The distance between each two points are calculated as
the Euclidean distance. The algorithm parameters used are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Algorithm parameters.

Parameters Value Parameters Value

Population size 100 Maximum number of iterations 500
Crossover probability 0.8 Initial mutation probability 0.15

The average fitness values in the solution set with Pareto rank 1 after 10 runs of each
method are shown in Table 5. It can be seen that in the initial population, the probabilistic
insertion method surpasses the other methods in the total amount of leakage and route-
length difference with the minimum number of iterations, indicating that the probabilistic
insertion method performs relatively better in convergence.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 12 of 25

Table 5. Comparative results generated by different methods.

Initial Methods Eco Soc Env Eco* Soc* Env* Number of Iterations
Random generation method 4231 220 3.60 2789 120 2.21 180
Greedy algorithm 2534 205 3.03 2320 135 2.08 145
The nearest insertion method 3020 180 2.83 2762 124 1.90 164
Probabilistic insertion method 2879 158 2.78 2414 105 1.80 120
Note: Eoc, Soc, and Env represent the initial solution of total distance, the route-length difference, and the
total amount of leakage separately solved using the initialization method. Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* represent the
corresponding optimal solution obtained after algorithm iteration, and values in bold represent the minimum
value of Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* respectively.

5.3. Performance Analysis of the Improved NSAG-III

The performance of the improved NSGA-III is verified by comparing with the classic
NSGA-II and NSGA-III in terms of four evaluation metrics: the number of convergence
iterations, ideal value of individual objectives, fitness value, and Pareto solution.
(1) Number of convergence iterations
The algorithm is set to reach convergence when the ideal values of the three objective
function values of the population do not appear better after 10 iterations, and the number of
iterations shows the convergence speed of the algorithm. Table 6 illustrates the performance
of these algorithms in convergence. We can see that both the average number of the
convergence iterations and the coefficient of the variation of the improved NSGA-III are
less than those of the classic NSGA-II and NSGA-III, showing that the improved NSGA-III
exhibits higher stability in terms of convergence speed.

Table 6. Comparison of the number of iterations of different algorithms.

Number NSGA-II NSGA-III Improved NSGA-III

1 140 124 104
2 152 199 125
3 109 129 93
4 162 117 89
5 160 126 135
6 100 191 109
7 128 136 111
8 131 120 149
9 180 73 139
10 189 133 144
Average 145 134 120
Coefficient of variation 0.20 0.27 0.18

(2) The ideal values of objective function values

The ideal value is the optimal value of each objective function in a population. After
obtaining the Pareto solution set of each iteration, the minimum value of each objective
function is retained so as to observe the change in the ideal value with the number of
iterations. The maximum number of iterations is set as 300 to ensure that the convergence
is finally reached. As shown in Figure 4, the improved NSGA-III has better ideal values
than the other two algorithms in terms of the total distance, route-length difference, and
total amount of leakage.
(3) Fitness value
Different from the ideal values of each objective function in the Pareto solution set
obtained by each iteration which can only show the optimal performance of the algorithm
in each objective dimension, the average fitness value of the Pareto solution set can reflect
the overall quality of the entire solution set. Table 7 shows that the average value of the
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 13 of 25

improved NSGA-III is optimized by 8.3 and 5.3% in terms of the total distance, 9.1 and
9.2% in terms of the route-length difference, and 9.8 and 0.9% in terms of the total amount
of leakage than the classic NSGA-II and NSGA-III, indicating that the improved NSGA-III
performs the best in terms of the overall quality of the Pareto solution set.

(a)

(b) (c)

Figure 4. Comparison of different algorithms in the change in three objective function values.
(a) Comparison of different algorithms in the change in total distance. (b) Comparison of different
algorithms in the change in route-length difference. (c) Comparison of different algorithms in the
change in total amount of leakage.

Table 7. Comparison of fitness value of different algorithms.

Objective Function Value Eco* Soc* Env*

Average of NSGA-II 2854 129 2.44
Average of NSGA-III 2765 130 2.22
Average of improved NSGA-III 2616 118 2.20
Ideal value of NSGA-II 2629 120 2.29
Ideal value of NSGA-III 2581 111 2.05
Ideal value of improved
2450 106 1.93
NSGA-III
Note: Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* represent the optimal solution of the total distance, the route-length difference, and the
total amount of leakage.

(4) Pareto solution

One quantitative measure of algorithm performance is the number of Pareto solutions,
and a higher value of this number indicates that it is more appropriate [50,51]. Figure 5
presents the distribution of the Pareto solution sets obtained by the three algorithms in one
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 14 of 25

operation, where Figure 5a is the integrated plot of Pareto solution sets and Figure 5b–d
are the projections of Pareto solution sets on different two-dimensional planes, showing
more clearly the distribution of the solution sets on different axes. The numbers of Pareto
solutions with rank 1 derived from three algorithms are 170, 142, and 368, respectively.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 5. Distribution of Pareto solution sets obtained by different algorithms. (a) The integrated plot
of Pareto solution sets. (b) Projections of Pareto solution sets on x-y plane. (c) Projections of Pareto
solution sets on y-z plane. (d) Projections of Pareto solution sets on x-z plane.

As can be seen in Figure 5, the solution set obtained by the improved NSGA-III is in
the lower middle position and performs better than the other two algorithms with a smaller
total amount of leakage, total distance, and route-length difference.
In order to obtain more reliable results of the algorithms’ performance analysis, we
generate more examples with the Solomon datasets and compare the three algorithms
according to the above process, and the results obtained are basically the same. Based on
all these results, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(1) The improved NSGA-III converges faster than the other two algorithms. The initial
population of the improved NSGA-III is optimized for both the total distance and
amount of leakage, while the classic NSGA-II and NSGA-III use randomly gener-
ated initial solutions, thus reaching a solution close to the optimal value requires
fewer iterations.
(2) The improved NSGA-III has the highest quality of the solution set. In terms of ideal
values, the comparison algorithms may fall into local optimal solutions. The improved
NSGA-III incorporates the Metropolis acceptance criterion of the simulated annealing
algorithm and the adaptive mutation probability, ensuring a higher probability of
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 15 of 25

searching for solutions with a better performance in ideal values while the population
diversity is improved.

6. Case Study of Shanghai City

In this section, the improved NSGA-III is applied to solve and analyze the real case of
the Xujiahui subdistrict in the Xuhui District, Shanghai. The data are preprocessed first,
and the final solution is selected from the resulting Pareto solution set. Then, the route
before and after waste classification are compared, and the parameters sensitivity analyses
of the maximum working hour, vehicle load capacity, and weight of waste are conducted.
Finally, the management insights are given to ensure that the company has a high level
of competition.

6.1. Background Description

Xujiahui Street is a subdistrict located in the central and western part of the Xuhui
District. There are currently 248 customer points in this area, and some of them are close to
each other. Hence, the gravity method is utilized to merge the adjacent customer points
into a collection point, and a set of 30 barycenters with their coordinates are obtained. The
geographic locations of the collection points, starting point, and waste disposal site are
shown in Figure 6. Three sanitation companies are responsible for collection in this area,
and there are a total of 128 dry waste trucks with a load capacity of 5 tons and 50 wet waste
trucks with a capacity of 3 tons.

Figure 6. Waste collection points in Xujiahui Street, Xuhui District, Shanghai.

Assume that the maximum working hour of employees is 8 h, and the average speed
of the trucks is 50 km per hour. Then, we apply the proposed model and algorithm to
find the Pareto set and select the optimal solution, comparing the differences between the
results before and after waste classification.

6.2. Optimal Solution Selection

Before the specific routing optimization, the distances between each two points are
calculated according to Equation (19),
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 16 of 25

d = R · arccos[cos(Y1) · cos(Y2) · cos( X1 − X2) + sin(Y1) · sin(Y2)]. (19)

where R = 6371 km is the radius of the earth, and ( X1, Y1), ( X2, Y2) are the latitude and
longitude coordinates of points 1 and 2.
In the process of solving with the improved NSGA-III, the initial and final Pareto sets
can be obtained, and the spatial distribution and two-dimensional projections are shown
in Figure 7, where the blue and red dots represent the Pareto sets before and after the
iterations, respectively.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 7. Pareto sets before and after iterations. (a) The integrated plot of Pareto sets. (b) Projections of
Pareto on x-y plane. (c) Projections of Pareto sets on y-z plane. (d) Projections of Pareto sets on x-z plane.

The comparison shows that in terms of the total amount of leakage, the quality of the
final solutions are mostly significantly better than that of the initial solutions. In terms of the
route-length difference, the overall quality of the final Pareto set has improved significantly,
with smaller values than at the initial one. A large improvement is also achieved in terms
of the total distance, with only two of the optimal solutions taking closer values to the
initial solution set. The above results further demonstrate that the iteration process can
significantly improve the overall quality of the Pareto solution set.
After combining all the Pareto solutions in each generation, the final 127 Pareto optimal
solutions are obtained, and the final collection routing scheme can be decided according to
the decision maker’s preference.
As an economically prosperous area, the government of the Xuhui District is more
concerned about the impact of waste collection on the environment than the economic
cost and personnel balance of waste collection and hopes that the total amount of leakage
in the transportation process will be as small as possible. Therefore, the decision maker
can first sort the Pareto solution set and divide it into different intervals according to the
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 17 of 25

total amount of leakage. Subsequently, assume that the decision maker attaches equal
importance to the total distance and route-length difference and normalize the values of
these two objective functions of each solution in the same interval. Then, add the sum of
the three objective function values, as shown in Table 8.

Table 8. Pareto solution set objective function value.

No. Env* Eco* Soc* Normalized Sum

1 1.49 4719 308 2
2 1.58 4314 242 1.70
3 1.61 3972 260 1.68
4 1.69 3450 109 1.08
5 1.75 3884 276 1.72
6 1.86 4463 317 1.86
7 1.87 4515 112 1.23
8 1.93 4455 109 1.21
9 1.94 5149 113 1.35
10 1.96 4567 117 1.25
... ... ... ... ...
123 3.05 4547 75 1.46
124 3.10 4858 98 1.71
125 3.14 4462 120 1.81
126 3.36 5462 100 1.83
127 3.46 5370 64 1.52
Note: Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* represent the optimal solution of the total distance, the route-length difference, and
the total amount of leakage. The rows in boldness represent the optimal solution for different total amount of
leakage ranges.

As we can see, among the 127 scenarios, the total amount of leakage ranges from 1.49 to
3.46 tons. According to the numerical results in Tables 5 and 6, if the government’s allowed
range for the total amount of leakage is 1.4–1.8 tons, then the optimal should be selected
from the first interval, and Scheme 4 with the minimal normalized sum is the optimal
option, of which the total distance and route-length difference are both significantly smaller
than other schemes. If the allowable range is 1.8–2.0 tons, then Scheme 8 is the optimal
solution, and if the allowable range is 3.0–3.5 tons, option 123 is the optimal solution.
Note that the solution in this paper only provides a reference for companies to select
the optimal solution. If the company’s most important goal is not the total amount of
leakage, or if the total distance and the route-length difference are not equally important,
the method of selecting the optimal solution can be adjusted.

6.3. Comparison of Routing Optimization Results

This section compares the routing results of the changes for sanitation companies in
terms of routes, personnel, and vehicles, before and after waste classification.
Figure 8 presents the routes before waste classification and the separate dry and wet
waste collection routes after classification, where the lines in the same color represent the
routes of the same vehicle. Before the waste classification, the weight of the waste at each
point is the sum of the dry and wet wastes weight, and the load capacity of each vehicle is
5 tons. The solution that meets the load capacity and maximum working hour of employees
with the smallest total distance is found in the routing arrangement, and the solution after
the classification is Scheme 4 in Table 8. To make the map readable, all routes from the
waste disposal site back to the starting point are omitted here.
By comparison, it can be found that the route before the classification is a collection
of some points close to each other because only the total distance and vehicle capacity are
considered. However, because of the mixed loading of the dry and wet waste, the weight
of the waste at each collection point is heavier; thus, the number of collection points on a
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 18 of 25

single route is less than the number after the waste classification, and some points farther
apart than others with less weight of waste appear in some routes. In contrast, the routes
after the classification are results of the trade-off between multiple objectives, and thus the
spatial distribution of points on the same route are more dispersed.

(a)

(b) (c)

Figure 8. Routes before and after waste classification. (a) Routes before waste classification. (b) Dry
waste routes after waste classification. (c) Wet waste routes after waste classification.

The comparative results of the optimal solutions before and after the classification
are shown in Table 9, from which we can see that before the classification, only economic
factors are considered, and the total distance is 1803, nearly half less than that after the
classification. By substituting 1803 into the objective function of workload balance, a
route-length difference of 410 can be derived, which is far more than the result after the
classification. Because of a more detailed division of labor among employees, the workload
balance after classification was optimized by 276%.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 19 of 25

Table 9. Comparison of waste collection and transportation results.

The Value of
Number of Number of Route-Length Difference
Objective Function
Employees Vehicles
Eco* Soc* Env* Dry Waste Wet Waste
Before classification 1803 410 5 5
After classification 3450 109 1.69 10 10 108.8 106.2
Note: Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* represent the optimal solution of the total distance, the route-length difference, and the
total amount of leakage.

In addition, with regard to manpower and material resources, only five employees and
five trucks are needed for waste collection before the classification. After the classification,
however, collecting dry and wet wastes requires 10 employees, 5 dry waste trucks, and 5
wet waste trucks, meaning that the company needs to purchase 5 wet waste trucks and
recruit 5 new employees. Given that the cost of wet waste trucks is roughly 70,000 CNY
each and the monthly salary of employees is about 5000 CNY, then the company’s operating
cost doubles.
In order to analyze the influence of the route-length difference and total amount
of leakage on the route selection, this section also considers three models with different
objective functions, the results of which are shown in Table 10.

Table 10. Comparison of model results considering different objective functions.

Models Objectives Eco* Soc* Evn*

Model 1 Consider three objectives at the same time 4042 131 1.9
Model 2 Total distance + total amount of leakage 3526 173 1.4
Model 3 Total distance + route-length difference 3733 121 2.1
Note: Eoc*, Soc*, and Env* represent the optimal solution of the total distance, the route-length difference, and the
total amount of leakage.

As we can see, without considering social factors, Model 2 performs poorly in terms
of the workload balance, which will cause a great injustice in real life and interfere with
company operations. And if the environmental impact is not considered, Model 3 performs
poorly in terms of the total amount of leakage, which can have a large impact on the
environment and thus affect the company’s operations. For sanitation companies, the
priority is not economic factors but social and environment factors, so the biggest advantage
of Model 1 is that it starts from the actual situation and balances the operations from
multiple aspects.

6.4. Sensitivity Analyses

Based on actual data, the sensitivity analyses of three parameters, maximum employee
working time, vehicle load, and waste weight, are conducted in this section.
By plus or minus 10 and 20% of the initial setting of the maximum working hour of
8 h, we obtain five values between 6.4 and 9.6 h, and show its effect on the optimization
routing scheme in Figure 9. It can be seen that with the growth of the maximum working
hour of employees, the route-length difference increases, yet the total distance and wet
waste leakage change irregularly. The reason is that when arranging the driving routes, it
is always desired that employees work as long as possible, but some employees will not
be able to approach the maximum working hour limited to the vehicle load capacity and
number of waste collection points. According to the results, the sanitation company should
specify a reasonable maximum working hour for employees, ensure a relatively reasonable
workload distribution, and give corresponding remuneration to the employees, so as to
better motivate them.
Figure 10 shows the effect of the maximum vehicle load capacity on the final optimiza-
tion scheme, which is set to 5 and 3 tons initially. Here, the ratio of dry and wet waste
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 20 of 25

load capacity is kept constant, and 3/1.8, 4/2.4, 5/3, 6/3.6, and 7/4.2 tons are selected
for the sensitivity analyses. It can be seen that the total distance and wet waste leakage
increases with the increase in vehicle load capacity, whereas the route-length difference
is not significantly correlated. It may be because with the vehicle load capacity increases,
one vehicle can travel to more waste collection points and accordingly reduce the total
number of trucks going to and departing from the starting point and waste disposal site. In
addition, the increase in leakage is caused by the increasing load during a single route and
a smaller change in the distance traveled between points. Therefore, the sanitation com-
panies can consider using some heavy-duty vehicles for transportation. At the same time,
in order to protect the environment, they shall purchase wet waste trucks with stronger
sealing properties.

Figure 9. Impact of maximum employee working hours on optimization values.

Figure 10. Impact of the maximum vehicle load on the optimization values.

The influence of the waste weight on the routing scheme is shown in Figure 11. For
comparison, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2, and 1.4 times of the initial weight of 1 are taken. As we can see,
the total distance and total amount of leakage both increase with the waste weight, while
there is no significant relationship between the difference in the route-length and the change
in the waste weight. As the waste weight increases, the average load of the vehicle during
transportation will rise, and accordingly, the vehicle will travel to less waste collection
points on a single route due to the load limitation, resulting in a greater total distance.
Both of these factors will increase the total amount of wet waste leakage. Henceforth, the
sanitation companies should consider using vehicles with a larger load capacity and ensure
that the total driving distance is as small as possible by rationally arranging vehicle routes.
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 21 of 25

Figure 11. Impact of waste weight on the optimization values.

We use the objective values as the dependent variable and perform a one-way ANOVA
for each of the above three scenarios. The results show that the significance level P-
values are 1, 0.999, and 0.992, respectively, all greater than 0.05, indicating that there is no
significant difference between the results, which means the maximum working time, the
waste vehicle load, and the waste weight will not affect the results.

6.5. Discussion and Management Insights

The results of the numerical analysis above show that the company’s actual transport
routes change significantly after the waste classification, more waste collection points are
served on a single route, and the distribution on the same route is more dispersed. The
total distance nearly doubled after the classification, and most of the subsidies received by
the company were used to purchase new vehicles. If there were not enough funds to recruit
new employees, this would result in a significant increase in the number of hours worked
by the employees and reduce their job satisfaction. Therefore, the company needs to take
into account the change in the employee workload and solve the problem of employee
satisfaction by increasing the salary performance or recruiting new employees.
From the comparison before and after the waste classification, we have found that the
routes after the classification are more chaotic than before, because it is necessary to obtain a
more suitable route scheme while keeping the total distance as small as possible and taking
into account the route-length difference in employees and total amount of leakage. The
company is balancing the workload of the wet and dry waste collection employees, because
it is difficult to balance the route-length difference on a single day (from Table 10, we can
see that the average value of the employee-distance difference is 131 km, which is about
2.6 h of working-hour difference), the company can try to introduce a shift scheduling
system, so that the employees can travel different routes every day and ensure a workload
balance over a longer period.
The leakage coefficient in this paper is set to 0.0001, which is relatively small, but the
leakage is still a considerable amount, which will aggravate the pressure of road cleaning
along the transportation process in the long run. From a long-term perspective, companies
should try to choose wet waste trucks with better enclosures and better treatment for
leakage prevention, but perhaps at a higher unit cost, in order to reduce the risk of leakage
in daily operations and help the sustainable development of the city.
In addition, although the employees responsible for dry and wet waste may have a
closer driving time during transportation, the workload will be different when loading
and unloading waste, and there is a significant difference in the feeling of waste handling
because the smell of wet waste is heavier, which will make the employees more uncomfort-
able. Companies shall consider from the perspective of a performance system and rotate
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 22 of 25

the employees of dry and wet wastes in a certain cycle, so as to improve the satisfaction as
well as the work skills of the employees.
Apart from better servicing to the society, sanitation companies also need to compete
with companies in the same industry, so in addition to considering from the perspective of
route optimization, companies can also improve their competitiveness from the perspective
of service. First, the company can try to refine the collection and transportation of the
waste. Because the wet waste contains a large amount of liquid, it is easy to cause liquid
leakage and produce odors when the weather is hot. The company can try to increase
the frequency of wet waste collection and transportation at night in some areas on the
basis of the comprehensive protection of collection and transportation, and effectively
reduce the residence time of wet waste in residential areas. Second,the company can try
to develop different cleaning programs according to local conditions and create various
cleaning work modes, such as chain cleaning and three-dimensional cleaning, for each
region. Third, the company can also make improvements in terms of waste trunks. From
the company’s long-term planning, it is necessary to fully consider the damage caused by
the increase in the weight of waste to the trunk, as well as the load capacity and sealing
performance of the new trunk. In addition, the waste trunk can be modified to grasp the
vehicle position, running trajectory, and load capacity in real time and connect with the
street grid management platform to achieve data interoperability. Through the real-time
sharing of information, the perfect docking between the waste trunk and the waste can
is realized.

7. Conclusions
The implementation of a waste classification and collection policy plays a very impor-
tant role in protecting the environment. In order to further promote the policy, Shanghai
took the lead in adopting waste classification and collection. However, in the process of
implementing the policy, there will undoubtedly be many problems. Environmental protec-
tion, employee mentality, and company interests are all factors that need to be considered.
Based on the above background, this paper proposes a multi-objective VRP model of waste
collection and transportation and an improved NSGA-III algorithm to solve this problem.
First, in this paper, the actual driving route is obtained with consideration of classified
waste collection. Although this scheme will increase the driving cost, it can also ensure the
workload balance among employees to a certain extent, thus improving the job satisfaction
of employees. In addition, this paper considers the leakage of wet waste; the employee has
to recycle the waste with as little leakage of wet waste as possible.
Second, in the process of designing the improved NSGA-III, the probabilistic insertion
method is mainly used to generate the initial solution, and the effectiveness of the method
is verified by comparing it with the greedy algorithm and the nearest insertion method.
Then, the quality of the solution is improved by the probability acceptance operator of the
simulated annealing algorithm, and the population diversity is further increased by the
adaptive mutation operator.
In addition, in order to verify the solution efficiency of the proposed model and
algorithm, numerical experiments are illustrated using Solomon datasets, and it can be
seen from the experimental results that the algorithm outperforms the other algorithms
in terms of the convergence speed and ideal values. In addition, this paper compares the
routes before and after waste classification with the real case of the Xuhui District and
performs a sensitivity analysis on the parameters so as to provide references for the actual
operations of sanitation companies.
Although this paper provides a set of methods that can be used for reference by
sanitation companies for waste collection and obtains some research results with theoretical
and practical significance, there are still some limitations in this study. Firstly, all the
input parameters considered in this paper are definite values, yet there may be uncertain
factors in practice. Secondly, the limiting factors of customers’ time windows are not
taken into account in this paper. In addition, we assume that there is only one distribution
Sustainability 2022, 14, 11498 23 of 25

center, in the practical waste collection problem; however, this may be more complex with
multiple starting points and waste disposal sites. In the future work, we will model fuzzy
or uncertain programming to deal with the indeterminate factors in the transportation
process. In addition, the customers can be divided into different areas and then we will
derive a more realistic transportation route scheme.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, J.Z. and S.W.; formal analysis, J.Z., M.Z. and S.W.; investi-
gation, S.W.; methodology, J.Z., M.Z. and S.W.; software, M.Z.; supervision, J.Z. and S.W.; validation,
J.Z., M.Z. and S.W.; writing—original draft, M.Z. and S.W.; writing—review and editing, J.Z., M.Z.
and S.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant
no. 71872110).
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request.
Acknowledgments: The authors especially thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their
kind reviews and helpful comments. Any remaining errors are ours.
Conflicts of Interest: We declare that we have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to
the research described in this paper. The manuscript has neither been published before nor has it
been submitted for consideration of publication in another journal.

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