Utility assessment of paper recycling technologies in terms of sustainability dimensions with a multi-criteria decision-making approach

A large amount of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is daily produced by residential places and commercial activities which is a major threat to modern societies. The sustainable management of solid waste is one of the most important urban management challenges that should simultaneously take into account the economic, environmental, and social criteria related to waste recycling.

In this study, utility assessment of paper recycling technologies based on sustainability criteria was examined as a multi-criteria decision-making problem. Accordingly, the fuzzy Vikor method was used to rank the recycling technologies, and then the UTASTAR method was utilized to measure the utility of the selected options.

As a result, this study led to a final utility criterion for each of the paper recycling technologies that facilitates their quantitative comparison in terms of sustainable development.

Finally, anaerobic digester technology was selected as the best paper recycling technology with the highest score in the fuzzy Vikor rankings and the highest added utility based on the UTASTAR method.