Decarbonization pathways in medical waste management through circular economy strategies to advance UN-SDGs

Global health resources have expanded quickly and global health has improved in many places. However, such progress has resulted in a demand for the management and safe disposal of medical waste, particularly in many developing countries which still lack adequate facilities and regulatory framework to deal with their medical waste. This study analyzes decarbonization and circular economy principles of sustainable medical waste management to find optimal solutions for reducing environmental impact and enhancing system efficiency. A novel hybrid MCDM model which combines DEMATEL-ANP is applied for identifying the key factors influencing the decarbonization and medical waste practices. It takes into account the interaction between factors and assists in decision making under uncertainty, particularly when data are scarce. The outcomes of the study highlight the sustainable management of medical waste and their correlation with certain UN-SDGs. According to DEMATEL results, both sustainable development (C1) and advanced technology adoption (C3) have significant cause-effect relationships on the other CE practices, whereas according to ANP findings, prospective investigative dominances of the advanced technology adaption (C2) and sustainable development (C1) are great backbones of decarbonization circular economies. The finding of this study offer specific insights for policymakers and administrators for reducing their environmental burdens, enhancing resource efficiency, and developing the resilience and sustainability of healthcare systems. To the best of our knowledge, this study becomes the first to emphasize medical waste management as a climate challenge and a sustainability issue and utilize a hybrid DEMATEL- ANP approach to facilitate evidence based policy making in low-resource settings in developing countries concurrently considering environmental sustainability as well as healthcare operations gap.