Evaluating municipal waste processing and disposal methods in Isfahan, Iran: a life cycle assessment approach

Abstract

Proper waste management is crucial to address the severe environmental issues that have emerged in recent decades. A prominent and extensively employed approach to tackling this challenge involves the utilization of life cycle assessment (LCA), which allows for a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with a particular system or product. This study used the LCA technique to determine the most effective waste disposal method in Isfahan, Iran. Six scenarios were examined, incorporating various processes such as landfilling, composting, anaerobic digestion, RDF incineration, and pyrolysis. The IWM2.0.6 model was employed to calculate energy usage and emissions for each scenario, while life cycle impacts were assessed using the SimaPro software and the IMPACT World+ method. Based on the results, landfilling has fewer negative impacts on human health than thermal treatment techniques like RDF incineration and pyrolysis. In addition, anaerobic digestion significantly reduces environmental impacts on ecosystem quality and human health. As a result, Scenario-4, which combines 28% manual separation (2% sent to recycling and 26% rejected to landfill) and 72% anaerobic digestion (39% biogas and leachate, 17% compost, and 16% rejected to landfill), achieved the lowest normalized environmental impact, with −4.06 × 103 for ecosystem quality and −1.88 × 103 for human health. Consequently, Scenario 4 was selected as the most suitable waste management alternative for Isfahan. Overall, using a life cycle assessment (LCA) can considerably assist in choosing the appropriate waste management strategy and positively impact the environment. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.