Abstract
In transitioning to a circular economy with sustainable waste management, the role of waste management sector shifts from being a regulator to being a facilitator. Instead of just regulating waste flows, the sector tries to encourage businesses to address all aspects of circular economy sustainability in a more efficient manner. The sustainability assessment in the sector lacks a hybrid method to aggregate the sustainability dimensions of circular economy strategies into a single summary indicator. This process is a multiple-criteria decision-making problem that requires the integration of circular economy strategies to form the sustainability indices. In order to make the right choices here, this study proposes a fuzzy three-phase group multiple-criteria decision-making approach. This approach integrates fuzzy analytic network process (fuzzy ANP), fuzzy decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory (fuzzy DEMATEL) and fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ration analysis (fuzzy MULTIMOORA). In addition, a proposed aggregate circular economy-based sustainability index is applied to calculate the closeness of the outcomes of the hybrid method to the ideal strategies. The performance of the method is evaluated in the real-world cases concerning the selection of the most suitable circular economy strategies for a sustainable waste electrical and electronic equipment management practice.
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Abbreviations
- WEEE:
-
Waste electrical and electronic equipment
- EEE:
-
Electrical and electronic equipment
- E-waste:
-
Electronic waste
- CE:
-
Circular economy
- UNEP:
-
United nations environment programme
- UE:
-
European union
- SD:
-
Sustainable development
- SDI:
-
Sustainable development indicator
- MCDM:
-
Multi-criteria decision-making
- AHP:
-
Analytical hierarchy process
- PROMETHEE:
-
Preference ranking organization method for enrichment evolutions
- ANP:
-
Analytical network process
- ELECTRE:
-
Elimination and choice expressing the reality
- DEMATEL:
-
Decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory
- EoL:
-
End-of-life
- MULTIMOORA:
-
Multi-objective optimization on the basis of ration analysis
- Al:
-
Aluminum
- Cu:
-
Copper
- Ag:
-
Silver
- Au:
-
Gold
- Pd:
-
Palladium
- DC:
-
Direct current
- CESI:
-
Circular economy-based sustainability index
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The authors would like to thank Behbahan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Behbahan, Iran for providing research grant.
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Fetanat, A., Tayebi, M. & Shafipour, G. Management of waste electrical and electronic equipment based on circular economy strategies: navigating a sustainability transition toward waste management sector. Clean Techn Environ Policy 23, 343–369 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-02006-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-02006-7