Truck route optimization in Karbala city for solid waste collection Fadak Salah Sahib a , Nabaa Shakir Hadi b,⇑ a Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Babylon, Karbala, Iraq b Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq article info Article history: Available online xxxx Keywords: Management of solid wastes Optimization of vehicle routes Network analysis abstract The Solid Waste Management topic has assumed a large dimension in the present time due to rapid urbanization improved standards of living and concern for environmental quality the solid wastes collec- tion and transportation are considered as one of the important elements of any solid waste management system. Many stated that a substantial shear of the total expenditure on solid waste management is spent on collection as such any improvements in the designing of collection system could result in substantial savings in cost. In Karbala the solid waste collection from the different regions, transfer and transport to the sanitary landfills are carried out by Municipality of Karbala. During the field survey it is noticed that the solid waste collection and transferring are accomplished by old manners and there is no program for solid waste management concerning the routs of the collection vehicles to achieve an efficient collection. Hence, and from this point of view, this study is initiated upon the request by Municipality of Karbala. The area under study constitutes of three districts in Karbala, namely, [Shohadaa AL-Molhaq and Dhobat AL-Usra]. These three distrctis are selected for their variety in activities (residential areas, hospi- tal, laboratories, restaurant, etc.,). The field survey is executed for the area under study and the length of main and branch streets are determined. Moreover, the quantity Of solid waste generated daily is defined according to the collection vehicles load, taking the population density and the activity nature into con- sideration. Three plans for the districts in the area under study are prepared. These plans show the streets and nodes which represent the intersection points. Each street is defined by two nodes (start and end nodes) and the quantity of solid wastes generated from each street, is distributed to represent the load (flow) at start and end notes. All this information is used as input data for QSB program which treats these data mathematically to find three different solutions. Each solution represents a suggested rout for col- lection vehicles according to certain objective function. Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer- ence on Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials, Nanobioscience & Nanotechnology. 1. Introduction Rubbish, trash, junk, and garbage are all examples of solid waste, depending on the type of material or regional terminology, and is the unwanted material from manufacturing processes or community or household activities [12]. The management of solid waste has become a major environmental issue[17]because of the detrimental effects it will have on society and the environment if it is not effectively implemented. A study by Amoah and Kosoe[16] stated that the development of an effective and environmentally sustainable system for solid waste management is a major chal- lenge to developing economies. The situation is exacerbated by the high generation rate of waste which results from rapid urban- ization and population increase[19]; W. [20]), inadequate fnancing [10], Citizen opinions around rubbish disposal are low.[4], and lack of political will (Kwarteng, 2011). The ability of local governments in poor nations to efficiently manage solid waste is limited.[13] Solid waste management involves the processes of generation, col- lection, transport, treatment, value recovery, and subsequent dis- posal. Poor design of any of these methods raise operational costs and may pollute the environment. [1]. the collection and transportation process alone, for instance, accounts for approxi- mately 60%  80% of total cost for solid waste management[8,6]. As a result, inefficient solid waste collection and transportation https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.06.394 2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics, Nanomaterials, Nanobioscience & Nanotechnology. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: fhmr2014@gmail.com (F.S. Sahib), nabaa.hadi@uobabylon.edu. iq (N.S. Hadi). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: Fadak Salah Sahib and Nabaa Shakir Hadi, Truck route optimization in Karbala city for solid waste collection, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.06.394