An Analytical Hierarchy Process decision model for e-waste collection center location selection

Electronic waste refers to thousands of discarded electronic devices such as computers, televisions, cell phones, and printers. Electronic waste streams are growing rapidly related to the growing sales and shortening the life spans of electronic products. The elements of reverse logistics for electronic products are collection, grading and sorting, re-processing and re-distribution. The success of the reverse logistics is strongly related with the collection activity and the collection activity is strongly related with the location of collection centers. The main issues related to collection of e-waste are what is the collection method and where are the collection centers. When evaluating collection centers, many factors such as environmental and cost effectiveness must be evaluated. In this paper, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision model has been used to select an e-waste collection center location. The paper aims to provide a framework for analyzing various e-waste collection center locations. The illustration of the AHP model for selection of a e-waste collection center location has been shown with a case study. The alternatives for e-waste collection centers were evaluated and compared under factors. The solution process was illustrated according to the proposed AHP decision model for evaluating e-waste collection center locations.