Waste vegetable oil collection: a comprehensive logistics system for sustainable and efficient resource recovery

The recovery of waste vegetable oil is a complex problem due to the variety of sources that generate it. The current collection systems do not manage to collect all the waste vegetable oil. The collection system must solve two main problems: identify the location of both the collection points and the collection centers and design routes that guarantee the optimization of resources. Therefore, the objective of this article was to develop a waste vegetable oil logistics collection system. The system integrates all sources of waste vegetable oil generation classified into three sectors: industrial, services, and residential, and it optimizes the collection routes. The developed system was compared with the current collection system that operates in Mexicali city. The developed system increases the collected waste vegetable oil by 1078%, reduces the fuel consumption per route by 37%, and improves the transportation capacity utilization by 93%. In addition, it decreases transportation costs by 73%. Water pollution is reduced by 78% and CO2e emissions per route by 14%. The waste vegetable oil collection logistics system can be implemented in any city since it adapts to its needs and characteristics.