Utilization of multi criteria decision making techniques for the determination of the optimal healthcare waste management method

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Abstract
This study aims to determine the optimal healthcare waste management methods according to the criteria selected using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. In this context, four alternative healthcare waste management methods were included: incineration, microwave irradiation, sterilization and chemical disinfection. Four criteria, including energy recovery, investment cost, emissions and volume reduction, were defined. The defined criteria were weighted using two different methods (AHP (environmental and investor approaches) and CRITIC). In the weighting results, the most important criterion is "emissions", "investment cost” and "energy recovery" for different methods. Four healthcare waste management alternatives were then compared with the AHP, COPRAS and MULTIMOORA methods. The results of AHP, COPRAS, and MULTIMOORA, using the AHP environmental weighting methods; indicate that the best alternative is “Sterilization (A3)”. However, the results of AHP, COPRAS, and MULTIMOORA, using the AHP investor weighting method, show that the best alternatives are “Sterilization (A3)” and “Incineration (A1)”. In the results obtained using the CRITIC weighting methods for AHP, COPRAS and MULTIMOORA; the best alternatives are, in order, “Sterilization (A3),” "Incineration (A1)" and "Microwave Irradiation (A2)". According to the combined ranking, incineration is the first applicable method. The recommended sequence of other methods is microwave irradiation, sterilization, and chemical disinfection.

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