Carbon footprint related to municipal solid waste management in upper middle-income countries: a multi-factorial study based on composition, operations and management strategies

^{The geographic and economic contexts play a major role in the decision making when it comes to municipal solid waste management. In the present study, simulations are carried out using Waste and Resource Assessment Tool for Environment (WRATE) software academic version 3.0.1, based on the Ecoinvent database (version 2), to assess the greenhouse gas emissions released by 1 M tonnes of municipal solid waste with typical compositions characterizing upper middle-income countires, with an organic fraction around 50% in weight. The variation over time (2000 to 2022) with no intended transformation in the management strategy is first analysed, and then several transformations are applied by varying the waste management routes (open dumping, landfilling, recycling and comosting) as well as the energy recovery integration. The results are then discussed based on the waste categories and the performed operations (landfilling, recycling, transportation, treatment and recovery). The results revealed that the most promising scenario involves limited open dumping that does not exceed 10%, landfilling with at least 20% energy recovery, and major fractions that address composting and recycling. Overall, this scenario returns a negative carbon footprint with a value surrounding -0.35 tons of CO}₂^{-Eq/ton of MSW. The results serve as a decision tool in similar contexts to plan for the most affordable transformations according to the parameters covered by the study.}