A Decision Support Framework for Sustainable Waste Disposal Technology Selection

Abstract

Waste Disposal Technology (WDT) selection is a primary issue in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) that affects the development of the environmental and economic perspectives/aspects, particularly in developing countries. The selection of appropriate WDT is a complex Multi-Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) problem with both qualitative and quantitative elements. The existent MADM approaches with fuzzy sets (removal of uncertainty), different subjective weight methods (significance of attributes), and rank reversal phenomenon leads to improper selection of WDT due to the involvement of different opinions of decision-makers. To avoid this, a Decision Support Framework (DSF) was proposed for optimal WDT selection for the growth of economic and environmental development. The proposed DSF integrates Preference Selection Index (PSI) and a Modified-Comprehensive distance Based Ranking (M-COBRA) approaches to determine the significance of attributes and ranking the alternatives, respectively. The DSF is illustrated using a case study collected from Iran and compared with state-of-the-art MADM approaches. Further, the DSF is validated in terms of sensitivity analysis, rank reversal phenomenon, and Pearson's rank correlation coefficient to ensure the stability of ranking.