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Network Design for Collecting Household Waste Cooking Oil

The improper disposal of waste cooking oil (WCO) (e.g., by pouring it down the drain) causes serious ecological contamination. An WCO environmentally friendly WCO disposal method is collecting the oil from the businesses (such as hotels, restaurants) and households, and using it as raw material in biodiesel production. While in the private sector proper WCO disposal is enforced by existing laws, the large amount of WCO produced by households mostly remains uncollected. OzU professors Burcu Balçık, Ali Ekici, and Okan Orsan Ozener, Omer Berk Olmez and Ceren Gultekin focused on designing an efficient WCO collection network, in which households deposit their WCO into the bins to be placed at several collection centers, which are then regularly collected by capacitated vehicles to be used in biodiesel production. The authors formulated mathematical models and developed heuristic algorithms to solve the problem. A case study based on network data from Umraniye, Istanbul, is presented. This study can be a building block for further studies in WCO collection practices through households.