| Popis: |
Healthcare waste (HCW) management is considered nowadays to be a major problem especially in developing countries such as Tunisia. However, choosing the appropriate HCW treatment technique is not an easy task. Therefore, the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods find naturally their place to solve such a problem. In this paper, we address the choice of the best waste treatment technology for care activities through the fuzzy ARAS-H method (F-ARAS-H). Actually, the F-ARAS-H method is a ranking one which deals with hierarchically structured criteria under fuzzy environment. Howbeit, our aim is to choose the best HCW treatment technology in Tunisia. Thereupon, eight alternatives which present different technologies to treat HCW (Sterilization by autoclave, microwave disinfection, landfill, chemical disinfection in situ, encapsulation, physio-chemical disinfection off situ, treatment by NEWSTER process, incineration) are evaluated according to eight elementary criteria (net cost per ton, waste residuals, noise, release with health effects, reliability, treatment effectiveness, occupational hazards and public acceptance) through linguistic variables. The application of the F-ARAS-H method leaded to ranking the alternatives from the best to the worst according to each sub-criterion as well as obtaining the complete pre-order that is ranking the alternatives according to the root criterion (considering all criteria together). Therefore, the proposed method permits the choice of the best HCW treatment technology in Tunisia. |
