This paper discusses the ecological optimisation of municipal waste management systems. The purpose of this paper is to help local decision-makers in designing integrated waste management solutions that are ecologically optimal. The study uses life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to build a model and test different waste management scenarios in order to see whether the waste management hierarchy is influenced by regional conditions. The study also tests to which variables in waste management systems the end results of the LCA are most sensitive. The discussion is built around a case study in Lithuania where several waste management scenarios have been analysed and compared in the LCA framework. The paper reveals several methodology-related issues and discusses what implications waste-related policy intervention would have on the environmental outcomes of different waste management scenarios.
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