Selecting the best composting technology using analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

Abstract

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used widely to solve multi-criteria selection problem. It is a technique that allows the decision makers to set their priorities and help make the best selection when both tangible and intangible aspects need to be considered. This study uses the AHP to select the best composting technology for the UKM composting centre where the accumulation of organic wastes are generated daily from the cafeteria and landscape activities within the UKM campus. Experts who are familiar and who have some years of experience on solid waste management at UKM were interviewed to do the pair wise comparisons which are structured with four criteria namely environmental, economy, social and technical aspects. These criteria then expanded into a few more sub-criteria. The alternatives for the composting technology are windrow composting and in-vessel composting. The analysis is done using the Super Decisions software. The result shows that technical factor is the most important factor with (0.5000), followed by environmental (0.2517), economy (0.1941) and social (0.0542) factors. The end result shows that windrow composting is the best composting technology according to these four factors with the priority of 0.6236 while composting in—vessel has the priority of 0.3765.