Bibliometric Analysis of Studies on Sustainable Waste Management

Abstract

Environmental issues have spread around the world as a result of rapidly evolving technology, industrialization, urbanization, and population expansion. Alongside this, wastes are produced as a result of rising manufacturing activities, the use of natural resources, and brisk consumption. Thus, waste management poses a great danger to both our environment and future generations and is one of the most important environmental problems of our age. Sustainable waste management should be implemented effectively in order to protect rapidly depleted natural resources within the scope of sustainable waste management, prevent the negative effects of waste on the environment and human health, and to ensure their participation as an economic input. The aim of this study is to examine the studies on sustainable waste management between the years 2010–2021 with the visual mapping method. In this context, SSCI, SCI and ESCI indexes were selected in the Web of Science database, and a search was conducted with the concept of “sustainable waste management”. There were 599 publications found with the phrase “sustainable waste management” in the title. Later, these publications were visualized and interpreted through the VOSviewer mapping method. The most frequently used keyword in the findings was “sustainable waste management”. The author with the most publications was “Yong Sik Ok”, while the most cited author was “Daniel C.W. Tsang”. It was observed that the highest number of publications among the countries was in China. China was also identified as the country with the highest number of citations. The findings of the study can be graphically visualized to obtain the most relevant information to be applied in firms. Additionally, because doing a literature review requires a lot of time, it is believed that the researchers will find the findings of this study that compiles the literature useful. For policy makers can bring new perspectives about incorporating strategies in wastes and waste management.