With a growing global population and energy demand, there is increasing concern about the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, which have a negative impact on the climate, necessitating the immediate transition to a cleaner energy resource. This effort can be initiated in the rural areas of developing countries for a sustainable, efficient and affordable energy source. This study evaluated four types of renewable energy (solar, wind, biomass, and mini-hydro energy) using the integrated Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approaches to select the best renewable energy source in Tatau, Sarawak. The criteria under consideration in this study included the environment, engineering and economics. The LCA was used to assess the environmental impact of renewable energies from gate-to-grave boundaries based on 50 MJ/day of electricity generation. The AHP results showed that solar energy received the highest score of 0.299 in terms of the evaluated criteria, followed by mini-hydro, biomass and wind energy, which received scores of 0.271, 0.230 and 0.200, respectively. These findings can be used to develop a systematic procedure for determining the best form of renewable energy for rural areas. This approach could be vital for the authorities that are responsible for breaking down multi-perspective criteria for future decision making in the transition into renewable energy.

Plastics are used for various applications, including in the food and beverage industry, for the manufacturing of plastic utensils and straws. The higher utilization of plastic straws has indirectly resulted in the significant disposal of plastic waste, which has become a serious environmental issue. Alternatively, bio-plastic and paper straws have been introduced to reduce plastic waste. However, limited studies are available on the environmental assessment of drinking straws. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies for bio-plastic and paper straws have not been comprehensively performed previously. Therefore, the impact of both bio-plastic and paper straws on the environment are quantified and compared in this study. Parameters, such as the global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), were evaluated. The input–output data of the bio-plastic and paper straws processes from a gate-to-grave analysis were obtained from the literature and generated using the SuperPro Designer V9 process simulator. The results show that bio-plastic straws, which are also known as polylactic acid (PLA) straws, had reduced environmental impacts compared to paper straws. The outcomes of this work provide an insight into the application of bio-plastic and paper straws in effectively reducing the impact on the environment and in promoting sustainability, especially from the perspective of Malaysia.