A multi-objective network design for recycling healthcare waste from large-scale immunization

This paper presents a Goal programming-based optimization model for managing the recycling operations of healthcare waste generated from large-scale vaccination drives. The model proposes an efficient system by integrating the decisions of locating recycling units and the routing of generated waste to them, considering the risks to the environment and the associated population. The objectives include the minimization of setup and transportation costs, risks to the population, and the number of installed units. A set of randomly selected test instances is used to test the effectiveness of the model. The results reveal that a compromised solution offers cost advantages and population risk mitigation. The approach effectively supports the strategic choices in recycling healthcare waste generated from immunization.