Urban solidwaste management by process mapping and simulation

Abstract

Adequate management of urban solid waste (USW) is beneficial to the environment, cities and people who depend on the income generated from collecting this waste material to survive. Due to the level of complexity of these processes involved in recyclable USWsorting, management tools which enable systemic studies become valuable assets by evaluating the effects changes may cause on the organization. This paper presents a modeling study,which used processmapping and discrete event simulation, in which a USW collection process was evaluated. The study was conducted in conjunction with the USW trash gatherers association of Itajub´a, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The lack of standardized processes presented difficulties for developing the simulation model. To diminish this problem, three conceptual modeling techniques were used (SIPOC, flowcharts and IDEF-SIM). Data were collected via observation, interviews and questionnaires. The validated conceptualmodel, obtained in this study, will be able to be used to better understand the process. Finally, the model was used to evaluate process improvement scenarios.