Choosing a recycling system using ANP and ELECTRE III techniques

The process of coordinating with the European Union forced the Turkish government to set up new obligations and an environmental policy for Turkey. The new regulations are more obligatory and have more district lines than the preceding policies. According to the new regulations, municipalities have to prepare packaging waste management plans. In this manner, choosing a packaging waste management system appears to be an important decision making problem. Hence, economic, social, cultural, and technical factors in choosing packaging waste management systems should be considered together. A system may have several criteria to be evaluated and different alternatives to be chosen. Due to the structure of this type of problem, it is considered as a multicriteria decision making problem. Taking this fact into consideration, within the scope of the present study, which it is hoped will provide alternatives for decision makers, 5 recycling scenarios were presented concerning the composition of municipal solid waste in Eskişehir. Consequently, these scenarios were evaluated according to their benefits, costs, and risk factors, using analytic network process (ANP) and ELECTRE III techniques. The results of both techniques were compared. Scenario 3a [10% curbside collection (commingled recyclables) + 5% recycling containers + 5% material recovery facility] was determined to be the most appropriate recycling system with both techniques. © TÜBİTAK.