Waste Management and Life Cycle Assessment

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, "Waste Management and Life Cycle Assessment", aims to explore the intersection of waste management practices and life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. This combination offers a holistic approach to understanding the environmental impacts of waste management processes. Please note that economic and social aspects are separate topics and excluded from the scope of this Special Issue.

Through the exploration of life cycle assessment tools, we seek to provide a comprehensive overview of the sustainability and efficiency of waste management strategies across multiple waste streams, including municipal solid waste, animal manure, and wastewater sludge.

LCA methodologies should be developed and integrated in the studies submitted to this Special Issue when assessing the environmental aspects of waste handling processes. We invite contributions that address the following topics of interest:

1. LCA methodologies: LCA developed and applied to waste management systems; the goal and scope MUST be clearly defined and justified, especially when a simplified scope is involved (a subjective simplified scope definition without justification is not acceptable); uncertainty and/or sensitivity analysis should be included for results robustness.
2. Advanced technologies in waste management: evaluate the life cycle environmental impacts of emerging novel technologies for waste collection, sorting, recycling, and disposal.
3. Circularity economy: LCA for strategies and initiatives for promoting circular economy principles in waste management
4. Waste reduction: LCA for strategies and initiatives for promoting waste reduction.
5. Case studies: real-world case studies and practices that illustrate the integration of LCA to inform waste management strategies and best practices of waste handling to reduce environmental burdens. Case studies are encouraged to include benchmark analysis or comparison with other business-as-usual practices to identify the sustainability of the proposed case.

Dr. Yixuan Wang
Prof. Dr. Manuel Soto
Dr. Yingqian Lin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Environments is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• LCA methodologies
• advanced technologies in waste management
• circularity economy
• waste reduction
• case studies