Medical Waste Management Based on an Interval-Valued Fermatean Fuzzy Decision-Making Method

Due to its infectious and hazardous nature, medical waste poses risks to people and the environment. For patients to receive medical attention and recover in a safe environment, waste must be disposed of correctly. Improper medical waste disposal poses a severe risk to society, which can accelerate the development of various pandemics and epidemics. In this case, medical waste disposal should be handled appropriately. This study presents an integrated multi-criteria decision-making method consisting of entropy, the Pivot Pairwise Relative Criteria Importance Assessment, and Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution methods based on an interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy set. This method can guarantee high safety and security for health practitioners and society through effective modeling and ranking of risks associated with medical waste disposal. Five alternatives and eight criteria were determined. According to the results, incineration is the most suitable disposal process for medical waste. The performance was then assessed and validated using a sensitivity analysis. A sensitivity analysis has been conducted across the range of values for the $\alpha$ parameter. It was examined whether the rankings of the alternatives changed when the $\alpha$ values in the integrated weight determination model for sensitivity analysis were altered. When the different $\alpha$ values were reviewed with the selected $\alpha$ value in the application example, it was seen that incineration was the first alternative. In addition, the study's findings and their consequences for lawmakers, businesspeople, technologists, and practitioners are examined. In the future, these stakeholders can concentrate on these deficiencies and provide long-term remedies.