A hybrid multi-criteria decision making method approach for selecting a sustainable location of healthcare waste disposal facility

Sustainability is the concern of organisations across the world; it has received attention of researchers from different fields including operations management. For addressing sustainability, the triple bottom line approach of environmental, societal, and economic sustainability has been widely mentioned in the literature. Since, the nature of healthcare waste is hazardous and infectious for environment and society; therefore, the careful disposal of this waste becomes an essential task for waste disposal firms. Along with this, the stringent guideline of world health organisation as well as National and State policies regarding the disposal of healthcare waste makes it a typical to do business. Therefore, to make it sustainable and affordable, in the present study the criteria related to the sustainability's triple bottom line, including other criteria, have been identified from literature review and field survey for the selection of a sustainable location of healthcare waste disposal facility. Moreover, a hybrid method of interpretive structural modelling, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, and fuzzy technique for order preference and similarity to ideal solution has been used to carry out this study. Therefore, the present work makes the theoretical, in terms of criteria, as well as methodological contribution, hybrid method, for the selection of a sustainable location of healthcare waste disposal facility. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.