Evaluation and prioritization of municipal waste disposal methods; case study: Karaj municipality waste management organization

Urban waste management has always been one of the problems of urban planners and its management in a principled and environmental manner is one of the most important issues in urban management. The purpose of the present study is to resolve the dilemmas related to municipal waste management in Karaj and to transform the threat of municipal waste into an opportunity to generate energy and convert waste into useful products. This study was designed and implemented in 5 steps. Firstly, the literature review and performance indicators were identified and then evaluated by a group of experts in the Delphi panel. Ranked from hierarchical literature and technique, the next step was to classify the waste disposal methods with the TOPSIS technique. Economic criterion with normal weight of 0.434 in priority, social criterion with normal weight of 0.295 in second priority and environmental criterion with normal weight of 0.271 is in third priority. Also, the inconsistency rate of the comparisons is 0.006. Finally, the best technology, landfill technology with 0.567 points, compost technology with 0.557 points, biogas with 0.519 points, waste incinerator with 0.337 points, gas fuel with 0.438 points and RDF with 0.428 points are ranked first to sixth, respectively. It can be concluded that the Landfill is the best option and economy is the most important criterion with the sub-criterion of construction cost