An Optimization Model for Expired Drug Recycling Logistics Networks and Government Subsidy Policy Design Based on Tri-level Programming

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Hui Huang²  Yuyu Li³  Bo Huang²  Xing Pi¹ 

[1] College of Social Science, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China; E-Mail:;College of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China; E-Mail:;College of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400047, China; E-Mail:

关键词: expired drugs;    logistics network;    subsidies;    multilevel programming;    Hybrid Genetic Simulated Annealing Algorithm (HGSAA);   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph120707738

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In order to recycle and dispose of all people’s expired drugs, the government should design a subsidy policy to stimulate users to return their expired drugs, and drug-stores should take the responsibility of recycling expired drugs, in other words, to be recycling stations. For this purpose it is necessary for the government to select the right recycling stations and treatment stations to optimize the expired drug recycling logistics network and minimize the total costs of recycling and disposal. This paper establishes a tri-level programming model to study how the government can optimize an expired drug recycling logistics network and the appropriate subsidy policies. Furthermore, a Hybrid Genetic Simulated Annealing Algorithm (HGSAA) is proposed to search for the optimal solution of the model. An experiment is discussed to illustrate the good quality of the recycling logistics network and government subsides obtained by the HGSAA. The HGSAA is proven to have the ability to converge on the global optimal solution, and to act as an effective algorithm for solving the optimization problem of expired drug recycling logistics network and government subsidies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.