A stochastic inventory routing problem for infectious medical waste collection

In the south-east region of France, the disposal of medical waste accumulated by patients in self treatment, is commonly organized as follows. At pharmacies, patients receive empty boxes which are dedicated to the safe storage of their medical waste. Full boxes are brought back by the patients to any of the pharmacies, where they are stored. When a certain limit on the number of boxes at a pharmacy is reached, the pharmacist makes a call to the local authority, which organizes the pick-up of the waste material. The pharmacy is then visited on the one or two following days.