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Circular Economy 2023, 2(1): 100024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cec.2023.100024
Original Research | Open Access | Issue | Published: 16 February 2023

A framework of carbon-neutral waste transportation: Modeling and sensitive analysis

Show Author's Information Suxiu Xua,  Yue Zhaib,  Jianghong Fengc( ),  Guosheng Liud
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Department of Logistics Management, School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University 100091, Beijing, China
School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China
Keywords:
Vehicle routing problem, Carbon neutrality, Third-party logistics, Global climate change, Waste transport
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Xu S, Zhai Y, Feng J, et al. A framework of carbon-neutral waste transportation: Modeling and sensitive analysis. Circular Economy, 2023, 2(1): 100024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cec.2023.100024
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Abstract Full text About this article

This study is aimed at helping third-party logistics companies to achieve carbon neutrality, which is a challenge they will face in the near future. From the perspective of carbon neutrality, this paper studies two types of vehicle routing problems (VRP) regarding third-party logistics: One is the carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (CNVRP), and the other is the multi-stage carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (MSCNVRP). In this paper, we consider three objective functions for the CNVRP and MSCNVRP models respectively: total cost minimization, fleet size minimization, and carbon emission minimization. We first linearize the constructed nonlinear CNVRP and MSCNVRP models, and then verify the validity and reliability of the models through numerical examples. Numerical experimental results show that considering the total cost minimization objective leads to a better solution for fleet size and routing in transportation. In addition, in terms of the uncertainty of carbon sink price, the MSCNVRP model has more advantages than the CNVRP model. Changes in carbon sink prices and the availability of funds to achieve carbon neutrality have no effect on fleet size and vehicle routing for models whose objective functions are to minimize total costs, but models with the objective functions of minimizing fleet size or carbon emissions are more sensitive. The results also showed that companies with multiple types of vehicles have an advantage in transportation costs. In particular, the models proposed herein can provide flexible solutions for companies in third-party logistics to achieve carbon-neutral transportation.


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About this article

A framework of carbon-neutral waste transportation: Modeling and sensitive analysis

Show Author's information Suxiu Xua, Yue Zhaib, Jianghong Fengc( ), Guosheng Liud
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Department of Logistics Management, School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University 100091, Beijing, China
School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

Abstract

This study is aimed at helping third-party logistics companies to achieve carbon neutrality, which is a challenge they will face in the near future. From the perspective of carbon neutrality, this paper studies two types of vehicle routing problems (VRP) regarding third-party logistics: One is the carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (CNVRP), and the other is the multi-stage carbon-neutral vehicle routing problem (MSCNVRP). In this paper, we consider three objective functions for the CNVRP and MSCNVRP models respectively: total cost minimization, fleet size minimization, and carbon emission minimization. We first linearize the constructed nonlinear CNVRP and MSCNVRP models, and then verify the validity and reliability of the models through numerical examples. Numerical experimental results show that considering the total cost minimization objective leads to a better solution for fleet size and routing in transportation. In addition, in terms of the uncertainty of carbon sink price, the MSCNVRP model has more advantages than the CNVRP model. Changes in carbon sink prices and the availability of funds to achieve carbon neutrality have no effect on fleet size and vehicle routing for models whose objective functions are to minimize total costs, but models with the objective functions of minimizing fleet size or carbon emissions are more sensitive. The results also showed that companies with multiple types of vehicles have an advantage in transportation costs. In particular, the models proposed herein can provide flexible solutions for companies in third-party logistics to achieve carbon-neutral transportation.

Keywords: Vehicle routing problem, Carbon neutrality, Third-party logistics, Global climate change, Waste transport

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 14 November 2022
Revised: 04 January 2023
Accepted: 12 January 2023
Published: 16 February 2023
Issue date: March 2023

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s).

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 71901023, 72071093, and 71971069, the 2019 Guangdong Special Support Talent Program—Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leading Team (China) [Grant No. 2019BT02S593], the Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project of Guangdong Province under Grant No. GD22XGL62, RGC TRS Project (T32-707-22-N), Beijing Social Science Foundation under Grant No. 20GLC057, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant No. 2021JBW111, and Research Center for Central and Eastern Europe.

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This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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