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Plastic pollution is among the many socio-economic and environmental dilemmas that have engulfed Pakistan. The exponentially increasing consumption of plastic and the difficulty of dealing with its waste has compelled the government to impose a ban on the use of non-biodegradable plastics. This ban has made Pakistan the 128th country to curb plastic usage through punitive measures. However, the country lacks cheap and sustainable alternatives for plastic bags and bottles, which form the most significant chunk of plastic waste. This research study aims to analyze and propose alternatives that can replace these plastic bags and bottles without compromising the lifestyle of citizens. The aim of this study is two-fold; first, it employs Fuzzy VIKOR, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making technique for comparison and prioritization of alternatives, i.e., Conventional Plastic bags, Paper bags, and Bioplastic bags, with respect to multiple aspects of sustainability. Secondly, it performs a cost–benefit analysis of a Bioplastic plant, with a focus on the production of biodegradable plastic bottles. The MCDM analysis prioritized the bioplastic bags, followed by paper bags and the least preferable alternative turned out to be conventional plastic bags. The cost–benefit analysis indicated that although the production of bioplastic bottles instead of conventional plastic bottles would lead to the reduction of detrimental environmental impacts, however, currently it is not financially profitable for the industrialists to switch to bioplastics. Therefore, it is recommended that government authorities should incorporate carbon taxes and subsidize the sustainable development sector, which would, in turn, lead to the reduction of plastic consumption and waste in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, municipal authorities especially in the developing nations are battling to select the best health care waste (HCW) disposal technique for the effective treatment of the medical wastes during and post COVID-19 era. As evaluation of various disposal alternatives of HCW and selection of the best technique requires considering various tangible and intangible criteria, this can be framed as multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, we propose an assessment framework for the selection of the best HCW disposal technique based on socio-technical and triple bottom line perspectives. We have identified 10 criteria on which the best HCW disposal techniques to be selected based on extant literature review. Next, we use Fuzzy VIKOR method to evaluate 9 HCW disposal alternatives. The effectiveness of the proposed framework has been demonstrated with a real-life case study in Indian context. To check the robustness of the proposed methodology, we have compared the results obtained with Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution). The results help the municipal authorities to establish a methodical approach to choose the best HCW disposal techniques. Our findings indicate that incineration is the best waste disposal technique among the available alternatives. Even if the dataset indicates 'incineration' is the best method, we must not forget about the environmental concerns arising from this method. In COVID time, incineration may be the best method as indicated by the data analysis, but "COVID" should not be an excuse for causing "Environmental Pollution". • Health care waste disposal technique selection is a serious concern during COVID-19. • We propose Fuzzy VIKOR based method for selecting the best disposal technique. • This work has been grounded on Triple Bottom Line and Socio-Technical perspectives. • The proposed framework has been validated with a real-life case study. • The effectiveness of the proposed method has been compared with Fuzzy TOPSIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]