Introducing an integrated method for assessing supply chain sustainability based on HF-ARAS and IT2F-BWM

Among the problems human beings are facing today is improper production of waste including paper and plastic in the environment which along with wasting national net worth and import costs, causes the loss of natural and irreparable damage to the environment. On the other hand, research indicates that little is known about supply chain sustainability management in the paper recycling industry. The purpose of this paper is to create a framework for evaluating the sustainability of supply chains in recycling industries such as paper and cardboard. Supply chain sustainability is explored from three perspectives: economic, social, and environmental. Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been applied to achieve this goal. The first step was to develop effective criteria for evaluating the performance of sustainable supply chains in recycling industries based on previous studies and expert data. In the subsequent process, the indicators are scored using the Likert scale and the factors are reduced to 13 by factor analysis. After that, we weighted 13 selected criteria based on the combined method of interval type-2 fuzzy best–worst method (IT2F-BWM), and finally, using the hesitancy fuzzy (HF) and Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) methods, we ranked four suppliers and selected the best supplier in accordance with stability criteria. In the light of the obtained results, among the 13 criteria, innovation and green development are the most important sub-criteria. In light of the fact that nonstandard recycling of waste paper directly impacts the economy and the environment. In this study, the criteria ranking was performed using the combined method hesitancy fuzzy—Additive Ratio Assessment (HF-ARAS) to express the degree of uncertainty in the data. Innovation and green development were the sub-criteria selected by the experts.