Sustainable waste management in the Indonesian medical and health-care industry: technological performance on environmental impacts and occupational safety
Management of Environmental Quality
ISSN: 1477-7835
Article publication date: 10 December 2021
Issue publication date: 21 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable waste management (SWM) leads to human safety by eliminating dangerous substances, increasing cost efficiency and reducing environmental impacts. Integrating social, economic and environmental factors is the standard for successfully implementing SWM. However, prior studies have not incorporated the triple bottom line with technological performance and occupational safety in establishing SWM. To drive sustainability in waste management, this study aims to provide a set of SWM attributes and identify a causality model based on the interrelationships among the attributes.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used the Delphi method to list the relevant attributes and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) involving 18 experts from the medical and health-care industry to present the interrelationships indicating the group of cause–effect attributes of SWM.
Findings
The study selected 5 aspects and 20 criteria as the relevant attributes of SWM. The cause group consists of environmental impacts and occupational safety, with positive values of 27.031 and 24.499, respectively. The effect group includes technological performance, economic performance and social performance. In particular, the challenges and practices of technological performance are linked to environmental impacts and occupational safety.
Practical implications
The top four criteria for industrial improvement are green practices, government policy and rules, the awareness of workers and waste separation and collection. These results present deeper insights into theoretical and managerial implications.
Originality/value
This study contributes to addressing the challenges and practices of SWM in technological performance leading to environmental impacts and occupational safety. Studies on the technological performance aspect in the causality relationships between environmental impacts and occupational safety are lacking. This study describes SWM using qualitative information and quantitative data.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was partially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan under grant number 108-2221-E-468-004-MY2.
Citation
Tseng, M.L., Ardaniah, V., Bui, T.-D., (Aaron), J.-W.T., Lim, M.K. and Ali, M.H. (2022), "Sustainable waste management in the Indonesian medical and health-care industry: technological performance on environmental impacts and occupational safety", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 549-569. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-07-2021-0160
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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