An integrated approach to municipal waste collection system management

The paper starts with an assertion that waste collection is a significant cost element of the waste management system. An integrated approach to optimisation of waste collection, regarded as a signification portion of an overall system, is presented. The optimisation is considered at three levels: operative - selection of waste collection and transport routes, tactical - selection of transfer station sites, and strategic - selection of an appropriate technology. The procedure has partly been tested at the waste collection system used on the Brac island.