IE 503 project proposal

Developing a reverse logistics supply chain model for waste management

By Kazi Safowan Shahed

Dhaka is one of the most densely populated cities in the world with a population density of
23,234 people per square kilometer [1]. Being a developing country with weak infrastructure,
the medical waste management system in Dhaka is almost non-existent. Very often than not,
the waste is disposed in the open area in Dhaka [2]. The lack of proper waste management in
such a heavily crowded area poses high health risks. With the projection of population growth,
the waste generated from the medical sector will increase too. In April 2020, the waste
generation was around 206 tons in Dhaka alone [3]. Being a small country with minimal land
to spare, recycling can have a two-fold positive impact. Recycling the acceptable type of waste
can reduce the waste transferred to landfill sites and benefit local health care providers. No
study until now has addressed this problem. Therefore, the motivation to work with this
problem is substantial. This project aims to propose an efficient reverse logistics system in
Dhaka to determine the optimal number and locations of waste management facilities.
Additionally, considering the possibility of recycling medical waste will be a point of interest
in this study.
Necessary data will be collected from different available sources for developing the model. If
required, expert opinion will be utilized to represent the real-life problem better. Finally,
based on the collected data, a quantitative reverse logistics model will be formulated and
solved to get the optimized result.
Dhaka city, with its limited resource and large population, lies at the risk of severe health
hazards due to the issue of medical waste management not being appropriately addressed. This
project's expected outcome is to propose an efficient, optimized model for waste management
for Dhaka, Bangladesh, by specifying the optimal number of waste disposal sites of different
types. The proposed method will help the city to plan its waste management better to ensure a
healthy, sustainable town for the occupants.

References
[1] “Dhaka Population 2021 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs).”
https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/dhaka-population (accessed Mar. 01,
2021).
[2] E. H. Syed, M. Mutahara, and M. Rahman, “Medical Waste Management (MWM) in
Dhaka, Bangladesh: It’s a Review,” Home Heal. Care Manag. Pract., vol. 24, no. 3, pp.
140–145, 2012, doi: 10.1177/1084822311425235.
[3] M. M. Rahman, M. Bodrud-Doza, M. D. Griffiths, and M. A. Mamun, “Biomedical waste
amid COVID-19: perspectives from Bangladesh,” Lancet Glob. Heal., vol. 8, no. 10, p.
e1262, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30349-1.