Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) of solid waste collection methods using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) outputs

This paper presents the selection of the most suitable system between new collection systems focused on improving waste recovery rate. A large part of solid waste can be recovered in some way. Recycling, energy production, composting are some of the recovery techniques. To obtain a high level of solid waste recovery, the waste must be collected according to some rules. Different collection methods are compared with fuzzy TOPSIS method, according to financial, social and environmental criteria. The originality of this paper is that the decision making process is enriched by the use of environmental impact data. In most of the studies, financial and social aspects are used to compare these methods but due to multiplicity of environmental factors and their complexity, environmental aspect has been neglected. This paper evaluates the environmental effects through Life Cycle Assessment methodology.