Assessing the sustainability of municipal solid waste management using life-cycle analysis

Various municipal solid waste management (MSWM) technologies were evaluated using life-cycle analysis (LCA). The study aimed to compare different MSWM approaches: landfill with composting, anaerobic digestion (AD) combined with landfill, incineration and AD combined with incineration. The Impact 2002 + approach and Simapro 9.1.1.1 software using the Ecoinvent v3.6 database were used to compare environmental impacts. The study showed that landfill with composting had the highest environmental impact due to its high potential of global warming and depletion in ecosystem quality, while other scenarios showed reduced impacts. AD combined with incineration was found to have least environmental impact, mainly due to energy recovery from AD. The goal of the study was to determine more environmentally sustainable alternatives for MSWM using LCA within the system boundary.