Hybrid biobjective evolutionary algorithms for the design of a hospital waste management network

Colombian environmental authorities are exploring new alternatives for improving the disposal of hospital waste generated in the Department of Boyaca (Colombia). To design this hospital waste management network we propose a biobjective obnoxious facility location problem (BOOFLP) that deals with the existing tradeoff between a low-cost operating network and the negative effect on the population living near the waste management facilities. To solve the BOOFLP we propose a hybrid approach that combines a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (NSGA II) with a mixed-integer program. The algorithms are compared against the Noninferior Set Estimation (NISE) method and tested on data from Boyaca's hospital waste management network and publicly available instances.