Quality evaluation for composting products through fuzzy latent component analysis

A fuzzy latent component analysis (FLCA) method was proposed for assessing the quality of composting products under uncertainty. In FLCA, vague and ambiguous information associated with multiple compost quality indicators were handled as fuzzy sets and converted into independent fuzzy components that had lower dimensions; the converted non-correlative component information could then be used for ranking compost quality. The proposed method was used for assessing eight types of co-composting products. Two scenarios were considered. The main strategy of scenario A was to evaluate the compost quality, and provide the decision makers a cursory suggestion. Scenario B is more conservative, representing a more robust alternative. The two scenarios were analyzed under two fitting degree levels. By ranking the center values of each component, an assessment system in terms of compost quality could be generated.