Location selection for WEEE recycling plant by using Pythagorean fuzzy AHP

Abstract

With the increasing environmental concerns, new regulations to decrease Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) have taken effect in many countries. Recycling is an important part of the challenge with the increasing amount of waste by time. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the facility location problem of WEEE recycling plant. Taking into consideration the requirement of the process to consider several conflicting factors from qualitative to quantitative factors, one of the MCDM techniques is employed. In order to handle uncertainties on human judgments during the evaluation process, the process is conducted under fuzzy environment. Once criteria affecting the decision-making process of the location of WEEE recycling plant are determined, the Pythagorean fuzzy AHP (PFAHP) method is applied to determine the priority weights of the criteria, sub-criteria and alternative locations. The results of the study show that transportation, recycling, and energy costs are the first three factors respectively, having the highest importance for the selection process, Electric and Electronic Equipment (EEE) usage habits and waste composition are the factors having the least importance.