A Hybrid Framework for Selecting Food Waste Treatment Techniques Using q-Rung Orthopair Fuzzy CRITIC-Generalized TODIM Method

Evaluation and prioritization are indispensable for selecting the appropriate FWTT (food waste treatment technique). Previous research shows that the decision methods are suitable for selecting FWTTs. Nevertheless, current literature on choosing FWTTs seldom considers the impact of experts’ bounded rational behavior and interactive criteria, especially with uncertain information. This article proposes a q-ROFS (q-rung orthopair fuzzy set)-generalized TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive and multi-criteria decision-making method)-based hybrid framework for coping with the selection problem of FWTTs. In the information fusion process, the fuzziness and ambiguity of information are expressed by the q-ROFS. Then, the q-ROFS-CRITIC (criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation) method is introduced to calculate the criteria weights considering the interactive criteria. Next, the q-ROFS-generalized TODIM framework is presented to rank the alternative techniques considering the experts’ bounded rational behavior. Finally, a real case of selecting FWTTs with q-ROFSs is performed to examine the applicability and feasibility of this framework. The result shows that the alternative \(f_{2}\) $f_2$ (anaerobic digestion) has the highest priority for food waste treatment with the largest overall dominance degree value. After that, a sensitivity study of different parameters and comparative analysis with similar selection methods are organized to elaborate on the reasonability of the provided framework.