According to the characteristics of rural household garbage generation, a multi-objective garbage collection and transportation path optimization model is constructed to minimize transportation cost, vehicle delay penalty cost, and environmental penalty cost, considering the variable collection and transportation cycle of domestic waste classification. The solution space is reconstructed with the combination of random choice method and nearest neighbor method, and the simulated annealing algorithm with variable neighborhood is used to solve the model. Through case simulation and comparative analysis, it can be seen that the proposed model and algorithm have good optimization results in terms of total collection and transportation cost and total distance. Based on the analysis, the results in this study are also superior to the optimal solutions of the classical simulated annealing algorithm and variable neighborhood search algorithm. Compared with the traditional fixed cycle collection and transportation scheme, the model established in this study subtracts the environmental pollution cost and modifies the total cost by more than 110.4%, which can effectively solve the problem of garbage collection and transportation path optimization in rural areas.