Solid Waste Management: Life Cycle Assessment

To improve the sustainability of a solid waste management system in urban regions, screening and ranking a plethora of management alternatives with respect to economic, environmental, social, and technical criteria are essential. The aim of this study is to assess how life cycle assessment (LCA) can influence and contribute to decision making of ranking 18 management alternatives to improve the solid waste management in the Setúbal region, Portugal, through the use of a multiattribute decision analysis. The multiattribute decision analysis conducted in this study is composed of a suite of criteria including one technical criterion, seven environmental impact criteria linked with LCA, three economic criteria, and one social criterion. The results indicate that the inclusion of LCA consideration in decision making does change the ultimate selection within the candidate alternative pools. It is believed that the inclusion of LCA consideration has been shown to be essential in decision making for future solid waste management decision analysis.