Abstract
Efficient waste collection is a critical component of urban management, particularly in rapidly growing cities like Indore. This study presents an optimized approach to municipal solid waste collection and recycling route planning using Operations Research techniques. By formulating the problem as a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP), the objective was to minimize total travel distance and time while maximizing truck load utilization. Real-world data from Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC)—including waste generation per ward, vehicle capacity, depot locations, and operational time windows—were integrated using GIS mapping and solved using tools such as Python (Google OR-Tools), LINGO, and QGIS.
The proposed model was evaluated against the existing IMC system, revealing significant improvements: an 18% reduction in total travel distance, 12% enhancement in fuel efficiency, and a notable decrease in idle time and driver overtime. Vehicle load utilization increased from 70% to 90