Title: Adaptation of plant propagation algorithm for waste collection vehicle routing problem

Authors: Nur Azriati Mat; Aida Mauziah Benjamin; Syariza Abdul-Rahman; Ku Ruhana Ku-Mahamud; Mohammad Fadzli Ramli

Addresses: School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia ' School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia ' School of Quantitative Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia ' Data Science Research Lab, School of Computing, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia ' Institute of Engineering Mathematics, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Pauh Putra Main Campus, Perlis, Malaysia

Abstract: Solid waste management (SWM) is an important service the government offers to residents of a country to manage generated residual waste. Failure to manage this waste can lead to unpleasant circumstances, such as environmental contamination and outbreaks of pest-borne diseases. Therefore, an efficient and cost-effective SWM system is required to improve the services. This research highlights one of the main issues of the SWM system, which is the waste collection vehicle routing problem (WCVRP). Essentially, this research addresses the adaptation of the plant propagation algorithm (PPA), which has never been considered in prior studies to resolve waste collection problems. The quality of the PPA solution was evaluated in terms of total travel distance, the number of vehicles/drivers required, the total working hours of drivers, and total fuel consumption. The proposed algorithm was tested on a WCVRP benchmark problem. Upon comparing PPA and other best-known solutions depicted in the literature, the solutions achieved on benchmark problems were extremely competitive.

Keywords: waste collection; vehicle routing problem; benchmark problem; solid waste management; SWM; plant propagation algorithm; PPA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJADS.2025.147250

International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences, 2025 Vol.18 No.4, pp.383 - 407

Received: 04 Mar 2023
Accepted: 13 Oct 2023
Published online: 14 Jul 2025 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article