Designing territorial systems for WEEE recollection through metaheuristic optimization

Abstract

The problem studied in this paper is motivated by the recycling Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment of the European Commission. The core of this law is that each company selling electrical or electronic equipment in a European country has the obligation to recollect and to recycle a number of returned items that is proportional to its market share. To assign collection stations to companies in Germany for one product type, a territory design approach is planned. However, in contrast to classical territory design, the territories should be as geographically dispersed as possible to avoid that a company, based on its logistics provider, responsible for the recollection, gains a monopoly in some regions. We present the application of a solution based on the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure methodology. Extensive computational results assess the effectiveness of the heuristics.