Application of discrete event simulation modelling for solid waste sorting enterprises in Brazil

Abstract

Political interest has increased around "Solid Waste Management" in Brazil. Every city nowadays must have its waste recycled and properly disposed. Therefore, most of waste sorting companies are under construction, beyond that, there is no research indicating best practices such as manuals or guidelines for helping in such environment. This paper presents a model-based methodology to study capacity, number of operators, facilities design, and sorting policy. The model was built using discrete-event simulation (Plant Simulation - SIEMENS). All data collected to feed the model was originated from a garbage-sorting cooperative, located in São Caetano do Sul - Brazil. The results obtained from this study reveals insights related to operations policy searching for efficiency improvement in that type of environment. The use of such technique help other low-income enterprises to investigate its process, to plan better the size and number of devices, resources, and workers to make sure they are operation it the best way possible and obtaining the best outcome from its process.