Multi-criteria decision making to support waste management: A critical review of current practices and methods

Abstract

Solid waste management is a complex domain involving the interaction of several dimensions; thus, its analysis and control impose continuous challenges for decision makers. In this context, multi-criteria decision-making models have become important and convenient supporting tools for solid waste management because they can handle problems involving multiple dimensions and conflicting criteria. However, the selection of the multi-criteria decision-making method is a hard task since there are several multi-criteria decision-making approaches, each one with a large number of variants whose applicability depends on information availability and the aim of the study. Therefore, to support researchers and decision makers, the objectives of this article are to present a literature review of multi-criteria decision-making applications used in solid waste management, offer a critical assessment of the current practices, and provide suggestions for future works. A brief review of fundamental concepts on this topic is first provided, followed by the analysis of 260 articles related to the application of multi-criteria decision making in solid waste management. These studies were investigated in terms of the methodology, including specific steps such as normalisation, weighting, and sensitivity analysis. In addition, information related to waste type, the study objective, and aspects considered was recorded. From the articles analysed it is noted that studies using multi-criteria decision making in solid waste management are predominantly addressed to problems related to municipal solid waste involving facility location or management strategy.

Soft computing methods for multiobjective location of garbage accumulation points in smart cities

“…Regarding previous bibliographic reviews about the studied topic, Purkayastha et al [32] made an effort to review the different applications related to bins location problems, concluding that the bibliography is rather scarce compare to the potential benefits that smart solutions in this problem can produce. Goulart et al [16] reviewed multicriteria approaches in municipal solid waste (MSW), emphasizing that there are again few applications that take advantage of the potential of multiobjective optimization in this field.…”

“…The comparison of the best compromise solution computed by NSGA-II with PageRank solutions showed the following results. In Montevideo scenarios, regarding distance, the improvements of NSGA-II over PageRank solutions were 16.02% in average, and up to 40.0% in Villa Española, normal demand scenario. Regarding cost, the improvements of NSGA-II over PageRank solutions were 7.40% in average, and up to 20.2%, in Trouville, high demand scenario.…”

Selection of Food Waste Management Option by Promethee Method

“…This complex problem must be addressed by a system analysis methodology that respects the environmental, economic, social, and technical objectives of the island of Vis equally [8]. This methodology uses the concepts of multi-objective optimization and Pareto optimality to help identify the most sustainable management options for food waste in Vis, intending to minimize environmental and economic impacts and maximize social impacts [9]. Optimization can be realized using various methods [10].…”

“…Optimization can be realized using various methods [10]. Multi-objective optimization has been used for a long time to solve solid waste management problems [8,9,11] and has provided reliable results. Therefore, this method was considered relevant for solving the issues surrounding food-waste management on small islands.…”

“…The characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of the selected technologies were identified primarily with data from literature [6][7][8][9]11], taking into account the local characteristics, climate, and the amount of waste. Five realistic options were analyzed for the island of Vis, considering these factors.…”