Waste container location in Kuala Terengganu: a covering model approach / Nurfarahain Basar, Nur Najwa Baharin and Puteri Yusrah Mardieha Yusri Nendie

A well-designed waste management system can prevent pollution and protect the environment, such as by allocating waste containers at optimal locations with a high accessibility level. Hence, the position of this waste container needs to be carefully considered. Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, is used as the study area, which has unstructured route networks, imprecise and inadequate waste container location, and allocation problems. Additionally, due to an increasing population and insufficient container capacity, the containers positioned along the roadsides and alleyways are hampered by persistent waste overflow issues. A covering-based model aims to determine the optimal locations of facilities such that all demands are covered or served within pre-specified distances or travel times. The first objective is to identify potential waste container locations based on pre-specified characteristics. As a result, six potential facility locations were identified in Kuala Nerus. The second objective is achieved by obtaining the relationship between the percentage of coverage based on variations in maximum time travel, the total number of waste containers allocated, the maximum number of total facility locations in the area, and the average service capacity of demand at each facility. Lastly, the optimal number of locations and allocations of waste containers from the decision-makers perspective is obtained using the calibration procedure. This is obtained by focusing only on 100% covering level. As a result, the minimum duration for travel between nodes i and j is set at 12 minutes, with a total of six distinct locations for a single RORO container with a capacity of 1500 persons are required for achieving 100% coverage.