Decision-making for the selection of different leachate treatment/management methods: the ANP and PROMETHEE approaches

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate is a highly contaminated liquid effluent. Leachate has a complex nature that needs to be appropriately treated before being discharged into the environment. There are various options for leachate treatment. Deciding which option should be applied is a complex process, since it depends on many factors that need to provide a balance between the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are useful techniques to solve complex problems that cannot be easily solved. In this study, MCDM techniques are used for an evaluation of four different leachate treatment options: recirculation of leachate to a landfill site (A1), combined treatment with municipal wastewater (A2), anaerobic and aerobic sequential treatment (A3), and advanced leachate treatment based on membrane processes (A4). The selection of the most appropriate one, based on the criteria, analytic network process (ANP), and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) methods, was applied as MCDM techniques using the Super Decisions software and D-Sight software, respectively. Both the ANP and the PROMETHEE analysis results demonstrate that option A2 is the most appropriate for all of the decision-makers.