Composting and Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Urban Waste: A Systematic Literature Review of Life Cycle Assessment Case Studies

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been increasingly used in order to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a good or a service (Bjørn et al. 2018). This robust and standardized methodology (ISO 2006a, b) can help identify the environmental performance of a product throughout its life cycle and reduce the chances of burden shifting amongst the various impact categories. In addition, organic waste collection has been increasing in Italy (which is normally collected separately), thus reaching an annual average growth of almost 10% in the decade 2005–2015 (Centemero et al. 2017). Indeed, 10 million tons of organic municipal waste were source separated in Italy in 2015 (Centemero et al. 2017).