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Assessing the challenges to medical waste management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for the environmental sustainability in the emerging economies

Author

Listed:
  • Tushar, Saifur Rahman
  • Alam, Md. Fahim Bin
  • Bari, A.B.M. Mainul
  • Karmaker, Chitra Lekha

Abstract

Emerging economies are struggling with proper and efficient management of waste due to their constrained resources and weak management. In recent days, this crisis has worsened due to the outbreak of the highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic. To avoid building up stockpiles and contaminating communities with potentially contagious medical waste (MW), and to ensure sustainability in the current and post-COVID-19 era, it is a dire need to develop and implement a safe and efficient medical waste management (MWM) system. This research, thereby, aims to identify, assess, and prioritize the key challenges to efficient and sustainable MWM to mitigate the impacts of the disruptions caused by situations like the pandemic in emerging economies. An integrated approach consisting of the Best-Worst Method (BWM), Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) has been proposed to achieve the objectives. Based on the literature review and expert feedback, a total of seventeen challenges were identified and later prioritized by using BWM. The top twelve challenges have been further analyzed using ISM-MICMAC to examine their interrelationships. This study reveals that lack of proper law enforcement and insufficient financial support from investors and the government are two crucial challenges for efficient MWM implementation. The research insights can assist healthcare facility administrators, practitioners, and city managers in identifying the associated challenges and shaping strategic decisions for establishing and managing efficient MWM systems to ensure sustainable development in the post-COVID-19 era.

Suggested Citation

  • Tushar, Saifur Rahman & Alam, Md. Fahim Bin & Bari, A.B.M. Mainul & Karmaker, Chitra Lekha, 2023. "Assessing the challenges to medical waste management during the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for the environmental sustainability in the emerging economies," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:87:y:2023:i:pa:s003801212300006x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101513
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    2. André Ferreira & Ana L. Ramos & José V. Ferreira & Luís P. Ferreira, 2024. "Simulation of Hospital Waste Supply Chain in the Context of Industry 4.0—A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Shi, Yi & Wu, Xingli, 2025. "Multi-objective optimization for risk mitigation of medical waste disposal reverse logistics network," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
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    5. Rashid, Mushab & Khalid Anser, Muhammad & Nassani, Abdelmohsen A. & Al-Aiban, Khalid M. & Zaman, Khalid & Haffar, Mohamed, 2025. "Assessing the interplay between waste-to-energy capacity, infrastructure investment, technological innovation, composting adoption, and governmental effectiveness," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    6. Jih-Jeng Huang & Chin-Yi Chen, 2024. "A Generalized Method for Deriving Steady-State Behavior of Consistent Fuzzy Priority for Interdependent Criteria," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-16, September.
    7. Kara, Karahan & Yalçın, Galip Cihan & Simic, Vladimir & Baysal, Zeynep & Pamucar, Dragan, 2024. "The alternative ranking using two-step logarithmic normalization method for benchmarking the supply chain performance of countries," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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