One of the important issues in the world is the significant growth of waste production, including waste that is not biodegradable in nature. According to the Kerman Municipality, 440 tonnes of municipal waste is collected daily in Kerman consisting of five major parts of paper, plastic, metal, glass, and wet waste. The major problems of municipal solid waste disposal are soil erosion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. The most important factors related to recycling are waste sorting and the relevant environmental conditions. This study aims to create a sustainable approach by locating the optimal sites to reduce environmental pollution, decrease costs, and improve the service system to the society. Optimal locations for establishing the collecting and sorting centers in the city are specified by the use of geographic information system software, based on criteria consisting of population density, road network, distance to health centers, distance to disposal center, waste sorting culture, land space, and land cost, which were weighted by an analytical hierarchy process. It was noteworthy that the criterion "waste sorting culture", which has a foundation in human sciences and sociology, has been considered by experts in this study to be of the highest importance among other criteria at locating sorting centers. Subsequently, using a symmetric capacitated vehicle routing problem, the number and capacity of each vehicle are determined to serve the specified locations according to the economic, social, and environmental constraints.
Keywords: Location; analytical hierarchy process; geographical information system; sustainable approach; vehicle routing problem; waste sorting centers.