Scientific African 10 (2020) e00569 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Scientific African journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sciaf Determination of waste generation, composition and optimized collection route for university of Abuja main campus using “MyRouteOnline” software Enumah Amarachukwu, Abdullahi Mohammed Evuti, Kamoru Adio Salam ∗ , Samuel Shamaye Silas Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Abuja, Main campus, Airport Road, Abuja, Nigeria a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 1 May 2020 Revised 14 September 2020 Accepted 17 September 2020 Keywords: Solid waste management Waste collection Route University myrouteonline software Optimum collection time a b s t r a c t Routing is one of the main components of solid waste management. Optimization of col- lection route reduces travel distance and time which could reduce disposal cost. In this research, an optimal waste collection route in University of Abuja main campus was de- termined using “myrouteonline” software. Information on waste generation and nature of waste disposal practices were determined from daily waste collections measurement by volunteers, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and discussion with various stake- holders. One hundred and fifty-five (155) questionnaires were administered. The results show that an average daily quantity of waste generated per person was 0.59kg/day while a range of 3.44 to 6.04kg/day was recorded for each Faculty. The composition of the solid waste by respondents are: 31.6% paper, 27.1% combination of the solid waste, 16.1% food waste, 14.2% plastics, 3.2% e-waste, 2.6% metals, 2.6% cloth, 1.3% glass, and 1.3% wood. The result also shows a reduction in travel distance from 24.38 km to 12.44 km representing 48.78% savings and travel time from 83mins to 43mins representing 52.44% savings. This reduction implies a low energy cost of waste collection truck. The results provide insight into the types and quantity of waste generated within University of Abuja campus as well as how efficiency can be improved during collocation using the optimized route. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Introduction Solid waste is any material which comes from domestic, commercial, and industrial sources and other human activities but has no value to people who possess it and is discarded as useless [17]. In the past, due to low population and un- derutilization of land, it was not difficult to dispose waste [4, 11]. Today, cities are overcrowded by dwellers in pursuit of livelihoods and lands are used for agricultural, industrial and other commercial activities than ever [26]. While the popula- tion densities in urbanized areas and per capita waste generation increased, the available land for waste disposal decreased ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: kamoru.salam@uniabuja.edu.ng (K.A. Salam). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00569 2468-2276/© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)