This paper presents a review of the available literature on solid waste management problems, with a particular focus on vehicle routing problems. The available papers are classified into different categories with the purpose of providing the reader with a guide that facilitates his or her search for papers in his or her field of interest. For each category, a table is presented that gives a summary of how each paper scores from that perspective. Additional explanation is presented about the characteristics of each category using some key references. Finally, this paper discovers unexplored areas of research and identifies trends in the literature.