Mitigating pollution of hazardous materials from WEEE of China: Portfolio selection for a sustainable future based on multi-criteria decision making

Abstract

In order to solve the environmental contaminations and human health problems caused by the inappropriate treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in China, sustainable e-waste treatment has emerged in China's WEEE recycling industry. This study aims to develop a multi-criteria decision making method by integrating interval Analytic Hierarchy Process and interval VIKOR method for China's stakeholders to select the most efficacious portfolio for solving the severe problems caused by the informal e-waste recycling and promote the development of China's WEEE recycling industry in a sustainable approach. An illustrative case in Guiyu has been studied by the developed method, and the results show that the portfolio of supporting the informal peddlers for legal transition, investing on infrastructure for WEEE recycling, training and education on China's residents, and restricting the foreign WEEE importation is the best one for Guiyu to solve the environmental problems caused by the informal treatment and recycling of WEEE.