What is it about?
The problems of waste management have become increasingly multiplex in recent decades. The increasing amount of generated waste, adopted legislative in the field of waste management, administrative issues, economic impacts and social awareness are important drivers in achieving a sustainable waste management system. However, in practice, there are many other drivers that are often mutualy in conflict. The purpose of this research is to define the precise driver and their corresponding sub-drivers, which are relevant for developing a waste management system and, on the basis of their importance, to determine which one have the predominant influence on the slow development of the waste management system at the national and regional level, within the Republic of Serbia and similar countries of Southeast Europe. This research presents two levels of decision-making: the first is a pair-wise comparison of the drivers in relation to the goal, and the second is a pair-wise comparison of the sub-drivers in relation to the driver and in relation to the goal. Results of performed analyses on the waste management drivers were integrated via the decision-making process supported by Analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The final results of this research shows that the Institutional-Administrative Driver is the most important for developing sustainable waste management system.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
For Republic of Serbia and most of the countries of Southeast Europe (SEE), which are currently in the process of joining the European Union, an adequate development of the waste management system (WMS) is of great importance, along with the development of the whole society and economy. These countries are undergoing a period of rapid and fundamental changes in which a large quantity of waste is generated and disposed of at landfills without any prior treatment. When comparing the WMSs and implemented waste treatment options at a regional level, there are notable similarities in obtained results of the analysed SEE countries as Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia.Moreover, similar characteristics of the generated waste, WMSs also differ in terms of other factors, such as the level of economic development and existing infrastructure, adopted legislation within a particular sector, existing administrative and institutional framework, existing technology factors, level of environmental awareness, socio-demographic, cultural and climatic factors, etc. However, besides the obvious correlation between the implemented WMSs and the aforementioned factors, it is highly difficult to determine the degree of influence and dependence for each of them. The aim of this research is to identify key drivers and sub-drivers which have the highest influence on the development of a WMS and which represent the main obstacles when creating successful waste management (WM) strategies in Serbia and other countries of the Balkan region. The main purpose is to indicate the existing problems that influence a slow development of the WM sector and to enhance its further planning by solving these problems. This paper highlights the role that key drivers could play in WM development.
Perspectives
This research represents a more formal and a more systematic approach addressing the WM issues in Republic of Serbia. Furthermore, the results clearly show the direction of possible improvements in the WM in Republic of Serbia and surrounding SEE countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia), especially because these countries have very similar political, social, historical and cultural background. Besides this, it also suggests that the used method is valid for other countries in other regions of the globe. In accordance with the authors’ expert experience and the data available, the research suggests that the defining of the WM issues should be done through 14 sub-drivers. Due to AHP method requirements, sub-drivers are classified within four main driver groups, and thus, the decision problem hierarchy is formed. Using the proposed prioritization of defined drivers and sub-drivers, a unique insight into the most important problems that lead to unsatisfactory development of WMS were obtained. Results of AHP evaluation showed that DMs have pointed out the institutional and administrative area as the one that should primarily be put under focus and to create solutions for related problems. It is believed that inadequate planning i.e. planning methodologies and disrespect of what has already been planned are the reasons why the enforcement of regulations in the field of WM is inadequate. The improvement of the planning system i.e. systematic evaluation of plans, establishment of evaluation criteria, clear definition of responsible entities, planning of appropriate means with the dynamics of implementation should be enforced. The results obtained in applications of the AHP method could potentially be enhanced by using Sammon's maps to visualize better the judgments of DMs. This remains an open issue for further research.
MSc Bojana Tot
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Science
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Evaluation of key driver categories influencing sustainable waste management development with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP): Serbia example, Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, July 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0734242x16652963.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
