Managing waste and promoting a transition to a resource-efficient economy are key elements of the European environmental policy, along with the objectives to stimulate innovation in recycling and limit landfilling. Municipal solid waste management is a key issue that policymakers face, entailing economic, environmental, and social implications. The increasing waste generation calls for management strategies to mitigate adverse environmental impacts. This research aims to explore waste transport’s environmental relevance and assess how to operationalize inter-territorial cooperation for waste management. It is challenging to find a consensus on a method to assess the environmental sustainability of solid waste management services, mainly due to the multidimensionality of the phenomenon. That said, appliying Life Cicle Assessment (LCA) metodology can contribute to exploring the strategies for environmental sustainability, can capture the local conditions and allow identifying critical problems and improvement options for waste management. This reseach analyses a case study and compares three alternative scenarios to highlight the practical implications and environmental impact of residual solid waste flow planning. Results indicate that the incidence of transport, considering both the distance travelled and the mode of transport, is relevant to the point that, if not considered, it can lead to ineffective decisions and it could reduce the efficiency of the whole system. The suggested methodology and indicator are transferable for evaluating environmental sustainability for other utility services that involve transport systems in their supply chains, such as waste recycling or wastewater treatment, and can be used by local policymakers to design waste management policies.
