ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Role of Environmental Factors
in the Investment Prioritization of Facilities
Using Recycled PVC
			
	
 
More details
Hide details
	
	
									
				1
				Department of Industrial Engineering, Atilim University, Ankara, Turkey
				 
			 
										
				
				
		
		 
			
			
			
			 
			Submission date: 2020-09-17
			 
		 		
		
			
			 
			Final revision date: 2020-11-13
			 
		 		
		
		
			
			 
			Acceptance date: 2020-11-18
			 
		 		
		
			
			 
			Online publication date: 2021-04-06
			 
		 		
		
			
			 
			Publication date: 2021-06-09
			 
		 			
		 
	
							
					    		
    			 
    			
    				    					Corresponding author
    					    				    				
    					Ugur  Bac   
    					Department of Industrial Engineering, Atilim University, 06836, Ankara, Turkey
    				
 
    			
				 
    			 
    		 		
			
							 
		
	 
		
 
 
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(4):2981-2993
		
 
 
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
There are many types of solid wastes however, plastic wastes are among the ones which have several
harmful effects on the environment. Plastic wastes have a long decomposition time in nature and the
dangerous chemical compounds in them make them a threat for the environment along with other
types of waste. Contamination caused by the plastic wastes attracts worldwide attention nowadays.
As a member of thermoplastic polymers family, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products are one of the
most preferred type of plastic composition, which holds an important ratio in the total plastic waste
amount. PVC wastes should either be disposed or recycled to minimize their harmful effects on the
environment. The disposal approach is easy and cheap, but recycling alternative requires the investment
on special facilities hence, a more expensive solution. However, disposal alternatives, such as landfilling
and incineration, may also cause pollution due to high chlorine content of PVC; whereas, mechanical
and chemical recycling options reduce many environmental problems. There is a clear tradeoff in the
decision of handling PVC waste between the costs and environmental effects. The purpose of this study
is to evaluate the factors considered during the investment decisions of PVC manufacturers to find out
the importance of environmental factors by using a multi-criteria group decision making method.