Addressing the Main Obstacles in Industrial Waste Recycling Generated at Small and Medium- Size Industrial Units Using ISM, LCA, and AHP Methodologies (Case Study: No. 2 Urmia Industrial Complex)

The proper management of the recyclable wastes generated at small and medium size industrial units (SMIUs) through identifying obstacles and designing implementation plans, is the main objective of present paper. No. 2 Urmia Industrial complex was selected as the case study. A total of 9 barriers were identified in the context of the current weak management of recycleable wastes. Applying ISM methodology, barriers B5 (low economic attractiveness for the contractor), B1 (lack of public awareness), B9 (lack of research and development office), and B3 (inappropriate informing), were considered as the key ones. Given the importance of modifying the B5 barrier to improve current management process, two scenarios for collection of mixed or source separate recyclables were defined. Using the LCA approach, the emissions from scenarios 1 and 2 were estimated to be -17.86 and -15.22 MTCE/yr, respectively. The energy consumption rates were about 0.558 and 0.545 MBtu/yr. Furthermore, net sales of processed materials were 819 and 192 million rials (estimated based on 2017 market prices). The results of hierarchical analysis based on three environmental, economic, and technical/social criteria and the relevant sub criteria revealed the importance of the economic criterion in the decision making process. Eventually Scenario 1 was selected with a score of 0.5028 as the preferred option. In this paper, a new approach is proposed for sensitivity analysis. Based on this approach, while the weight of the environmental criterion kept below 0.22, in any weight of economic criterion, scenario 2 will be superior.