Use of mapping with routing and scheduling to gauge the merits of local recycling opportunities

Abstract

Using a significant database of user origin postcodes, this paper reports on a study attempting to estimate the annual mileage associated with visitor trips to Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), and identifies how this could be reduced if a series of bring-sites in the community were enhanced to take green waste, the optimal locations of which were determined using calculations derived from mapping and routing software. The 4,677,000 annual visitors to the 26 HWRCs in Hampshire travelled around 40 million km and emitted approximately 6,840 tonnes of CO 2 . A network of 104 bring-sites serviced by 78 refuse collection vehicles able to take green waste, operating additionally to the facilities at the 26 HWRCs, could save around 8.5 million km (21%) of travel per annum (equivalent to 1350 tonnes of CO 2 ). The availability of accurate, digital mapping products, coupled to software enabling the routing and scheduling of vehicle fleets to be optimised, means that spatial transport problems can be better addressed and understood, and an assessment made of the impact of an alternative operating method.

Editorial: Mapping the Impacts of Transport

“…Killer and Axhausen (2010) discuss methods of mapping and delineating commuting areas of work travel. Papers producing outputs that can be used to guide future development planning decisions include those by Carty and Ahern (2010) who map the transport energy consumption of districts in the Greater Dublin area, allowing the identification of the most sustainable urban forms, and Hickford and Cherrett (2010) who used mapping and routing software to derive optimal locations of recycling sites to reduce annual mileage.…”