Zone Based Waste Collection

Product Used: Route Optimization API

Background

A waste collection company services a large metropolitan area divided into several districts with varying population densities. Some zones, like the downtown business district, generate higher waste volumes, particularly during weekdays, while residential areas have consistent waste generation patterns. The company uses a fleet of different trucks, each with varying capacity and equipment, like compactors for residential waste and open-body trucks for bulky commercial waste. Given the city's traffic and operational costs, ensuring that each truck services only designated zones is essential for efficiency.

Problem Statements

The waste collection company wants to optimize for:

1. Different Waste Requirements by Zone: Commercial zones often need more frequent pickups due to higher waste output, while residential areas need a more streamlined schedule to prevent service overlaps and reduce neighborhood disturbance.
2. Fleet Allocation Complexity: Without a zone-based allocation system, trucks might be dispatched to overlapping zones, resulting in inefficient routes, increased fuel costs, and an underutilized fleet.

Solution

With a zone-based allocation feature of NextBillion.ai Route Optimization API, the waste management company can optimize operations by assigning specific trucks to serve designated zones, each with tailored service times and requirements:

Defining Collection Zones

We will first divide the metropolitan area into clearly defined zones, like “Downtown,” “Residential,” and “Industrial.” Use NextBillion.ai Geofence API to create geofences or use the geoJSON boundaries to indicate the desired areas of interest directly at the time of building a route optimization request. Following is a geofence create request that we use in the Sample API Request below:

Once the zones are identified and built, identify a schedule for each zone based on waste generation patterns and volume. We use these scheduled collection time windows while defining our collection tasks.

Assigning Trucks to Zones

Waste Collection trucks with compactors and lower capacities are assigned to the “Residential” zone to make frequent stops, while larger trucks with higher capacities are dedicated to “Industrial” zones. This allocation ensures that each truck is well-suited for the waste volume and type in each zone.

Optimized Route Planning with Zones

Within each assigned zone, the routing algorithm optimizes each truck’s path based on factors like traffic, pickup points, and designated collection windows.

Sample API request and response

Here is a complete JSON request that we built for this case and the corresponding response.

API Request

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curl --location 'https://api.nextbillion.io/optimization/v2?key=<your_api_key>' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data '{...}'

API Response

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{
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    "description": "Zone Based Waste Collection",
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    "result": '{...}',
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    "status": "Ok",
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    "message": ""

We can see from the response that only the designated vehicles were assigned to pick-up waste inside a given zone. Zone-based allocation enables waste management companies to segment their service areas, allowing tailored route planning for each truck based on zone-specific requirements. This feature optimizes resource use, enhances service reliability, and reduces operational costs by focusing fleet deployment on the unique needs of each area.