Problems in waste management have become more and more complex during recent decades. The increasing volumes of waste produced and social environmental consciousness present prominent drivers for environmental managers towards the achievement of a sustainable waste management scheme. However, in practice, there are many factors and influences - often mutually conflicting - criteria for finding solutions in real-life applications. This paper presents a review of the literature on multi-criteria decision aiding in waste management problems for all reported waste streams. Despite limitations, which are clearly stated, most of the work published in this field is reviewed. The present review aims to provide environmental managers and decision-makers with a thorough list of practical applications of the multi-criteria decision analysis techniques that are used to solve real-life waste management problems, as well as the criteria that are mostly employed in such applications according to the nature of the problem under study. Moreover, the paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of using multi-criteria decision analysis techniques in waste management problems in comparison to other available alternatives.
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Up to 2002, Hellenic Solid Waste Management (SWM) policy specified that each of the country’s 54 prefectural governments\ud
plan its own SWM system. After 2002, this authority was shifted to the country’s 13 regions entirely. In this\ud
paper, we compare and contrast regional and prefectural SWM planning in Central Macedonia. To design the prefectural\ud
plan, we assume that each prefecture must be self-sufficient, and we locate waste facilities in each prefecture. In contrast, in\ud
the regional plan, we assume cooperation between prefectures and locate waste facilities to serve the entire region. We present\ud
a new multicriteria mixed-integer linear programming model to solve the location–allocation problem for municipal\ud
SWM at the regional level. We apply the lexicographic minimax approach to obtain a ‘‘fair’’ nondominated solution, a\ud
solution with all normalized objectives as equal to one another as possible. A solution to the model consists of locations\ud
and technologies for transfer stations, material recovery facilities, incinerators and sanitary landfills, as well as the waste\ud
flow between these locations.\ud
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
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