Decision-Making Models for Circular Economy Implementation in Waste Management
Keywords:
waste management, circular economy, decision-making, AHP, TOPSISAbstract
The transition from linear waste management systems to circular economy (CE) models creates the demand for advanced decision-making frameworks designed to tackle environmental, economic, social, and technical issues. This research presents the systematic literature review on decision-making models for the application of circular economy in waste management. The review processes the PRISMA framework and studies obtained from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Search terms included circular economy, waste management, sustainability, and MCDM, and were applied to articles from 2020 to 2026. Following the application of predefined criteria and title, abstract, and full text screenings, nine articles were chosen for qualitative synthesis. Studies were found to be moving away from classical MCDM methods, like AHP and TOPSIS, toward fuzzy-set and hybrid complex environmental system decision-making frameworks. The analyzed studies examined a variety of waste types, including medical, electronic, construction, food, organic, and plastic waste. Among these, construction and demolition waste was the most researched category. The most recent studies found that environmental factors, particularly regarding pollution, public health, and sustainability, were increasingly found among the most prominent factors of the decision-making process. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrated that hybrid and uncertainty-oriented models provide more robust and reliable support for circular economy implementation in waste management systems.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Amirreza Soleimannezhad Aliabadi; Mohammad Ali Niroomand, Fereshteh Khalili Peykani (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
