Identifying key factors influencing sustainable element in healthcare waste management using the interval-valued fuzzy DEMATEL method

With the rapid growth of healthcare waste and improvement of people’s environment awareness, the sustainability of healthcare waste management is becoming increasingly important. However, there is no research on the identification of key factors that influence sustainable healthcare waste management using the quantitative methods in the existing literature. Based on an in-depth analysis of the existing literature, we found out 15 factors influencing sustainable healthcare waste management. Then we used the interval-valued fuzzy DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) method to analyze these factors. Finally, we presented a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. We found that sound legal framework supporting sustainability, strengthening sustainable management training or education programs and positive attitude and perception towards sustainable healthcare waste management are the top three most important factors. This study contributes to the literature on sustainable healthcare waste management and helps to improve the sustainability of healthcare waste management.