Optimizing Construction and Demolition Waste Management Strategies in Libya: A FUCOM-EDAS Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach

Waste management has emerged as a critical environmental challenge globally, particularly in the context of rapid urbanization, which has significantly increased waste generation.Effective strategies for handling construction and demolition (C&D) waste are essential to mitigate environmental impacts.In Libya, the aftermath of the 2011 conflict and subsequent instability has led to extensive destruction of public and private infrastructure.As reconstruction efforts accelerate, the absence of a structured framework for C&D waste management remains a pressing concern, with current practices predominantly involving disposal in open dumps alongside municipal solid waste.This study employs the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) to determine the relative importance of key criteria and the Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) method to assess alternative waste management strategies.The findings indicate that investment cost is the most influential criterion, followed by social acceptance.Among the evaluated strategies, landfilling emerged as the most suitable alternative.To ensure the robustness of the results, a sensitivity analysis was conducted by varying the weight distributions across seven additional scenarios, consistently reaffirming the superiority of landfilling.Furthermore, a comparative analysis was performed using three other Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) models-COmbinative Distance-based ASsessment (CODAS), VIKOR, and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)-each corroborating the ranking of landfilling as the optimal strategy.The insights derived from this study underscore the necessity for policymakers to integrate cost-effective and socially acceptable solutions into Libya's C&D waste management framework to support sustainable reconstruction efforts.