Determining the effect of blockchain technology on the medical waste management process in the circular economy framework with the integrated FUCOM-ARAS method

The concept of circular economy has focused to reduce the burden on the environment by aiming at reusing resources, minimizing waste generation by reducing inputs, and reducing costs. The increase in costs necessitates health facilities and many organizations to focus on medical waste management. Blockchain technologies, which emerged in 2008, are a database of auditable and traceable transactions consisting of a whole of reliable blocks. Transparency, reliability, accessibility, flexibility, digitality/automation, etc. may provide various advantages to the circular economic system following the medical waste management process. In this context, the study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the medical waste management process, which is important for health institutions and sustainable development, within the framework of the circular economy and with multi-criteria decision-making techniques (MCDM), taking into account the contribution of blockchain technology to this process. The criteria and alternatives in the study were determined by literature research. Calculation of the importance weights of the criteria was obtained by the Full Consistency Method (FUCOM) method, which is one of the MCDM methods. The ranking of the alternatives was carried out with the Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method, which is one of the MCDM methods. As a result of the study, while the potential benefit of Blockchain Technology in the medical waste management process within the framework of the circular economy is reliability, the most effective step in the management process is the storage of medical waste.