Comparative life cycle assessment of different municipal solid waste management scenarios in Iran

The aim of this study was to review and assess the different municipal solid waste management (MSW) scenarios using a comparative life cycle assessment approach in Iran. For this purpose, the capital of Iran was selected and five different scenarios including: anaerobic digestion (AD, Sc-0), landfilling combined with composting (Sc-1), incineration (Sc-2), incineration combined with composting (Sc-3), and AD combined with incineration (Sc-4) were taken into consideration. The results obtained showed that the scenarios Sc-3 and Sc-1 led to the most adverse environmental impact in the Human Health and Ecosystem Quality damage categories. In the Climate Change damage category, the scenario Sc-1 resulted in the worst impact while the other scenarios showed improving impacts on this damage category. Also, the scenario Sc-1 had the least helpful effect on the Resources damage category. The overall analysis of different scenarios implied that the scenario Sc-1 was the worst scenario among the studied scenarios. The results also showed that the most eco-friendly scenario to be implemented in the future would be the combination of AD with incineration (Sc-4).