The interplay of circular economy with industry 4.0 enabled smart city drivers of healthcare waste disposal

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123854Get rights and content

Abstract

Generation of healthcare waste from different patient care activities in hospitals, pathology labs and research centres has been a matter of great concern for environmental and social bodies across the world. This concern comes from its infectious and hazardous nature which brings life taking disease such as human immunodeficiency virus and Hepatitis-B. Moreover, with the outbreak of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic across the world, healthcare waste has become even more infectious like never before and showing its potential for claiming lives if not disposed properly. Additionally, the COVID-19 has put up another challenge in terms of exponentially increasing demand for personal protective equipments for healthcare workers such as doctors, nurses, ward boys, and sanitation workers. In this paper, seven criteria related to smart healthcare waste disposal system infused by circular economy aspects to recover value from disposables are identified and analysed using a decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The criteria have been prioritized by its importance and net cause and effect relationship through a causal diagram. Two criteria, (i) digitally connected healthcare centres, waste disposal firms and pollution control board, and (ii) providing a pollution control board’s feedback app to public and other stakeholders, feature as strong reasons for a smart healthcare waste disposal system. Conclusively, this study provides a causal relationship model among the intertwined drivers of industry 4.0 and circular economy for developing a smart healthcare waste disposal system enriched with the benefits of circular economy.

Keywords

COVID-19
Healthcare waste
Circular economy
Industry 4.0
IoT
Smart city
Multi-criteria decision making

Cited by (0)

Ankur Chauhan is an Assistant Professor in the area of Operations Management at Indian Institute of Management Bodh Gaya, Bihar. Previously, he worked as a faculty member in the School of Management Studies, NIT Calicut, Kerala. He earned his doctoral degree from the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, India. He holds an M. Tech from the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar. His research interest lies in various waste management areas such as healthcare waste, agri-food waste and electronic waste. He has published his research work in top journals such as Annals of Operations Research and Journal of Cleaner Production. He has worked on research articles using multi-criteria decision making techniques and statistical modeling methods such as regression analysis and ARIMA. E-mail: [email protected]; Institutional E-mail: [email protected]

Suresh Jakhar is an Associate Professor in the area of Operations Management in Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He published his research work extensively in top journals such as International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Annals of Operations Research, Production Planning and Control, Business Strategy and the Environment, and Journal of Cleaner Production. Majorly, His research interest lies in Game-theory applications and supply chain modeling. E-mail: [email protected]

Chetna Chauhan is a Doctoral Fellow at Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, India. Her research interests include supply chain management, greening, supply chain coordination, Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) and supply chain contracts. Email: [email protected]

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