Despite some progress, municipal solid waste (MSW) still poses pressure on cities and remains one of the major challenges in environmental management. There is no single solution to the problem since the drivers behind MSW systems may vary significantly from city to city. In this context, the development of a common strategy to attain a sustainable management has been increasingly difficult. This paper presents an issue-driven analytical framework to evaluate the past, present and future MSW management strategy for the cities of Yokohama and Boston considering four driver categories while evaluating if the relevance of these drivers has changed over time. These categories represent: (i) legal drivers (e.g. laws and regulations); (ii) technology development and institutional drivers (e.g. available technologies); (iii) regional and international drivers (e.g. solid waste flow as recyclable resources); and (iv) socio-economic drivers (e.g. population trends and public awareness). The analysis indicated that solid waste management capacity for both cases was under stress due to different reasons. In the case of Boston, the moratorium for disposal facilities played an important role while increasing population was a key driver for the city of Yokohama. The future management scenario suggests that various waste-to-energy alternatives and strong solid waste reduction policies will play a key role for Boston. In Yokohama, a shift on waste composition and generation triggered by a demographic change may open the path for new technologies while also considering the international demand of solid waste as a recyclable resource.

Given the effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, understanding the consumption patterns that facilitate and support changes is essential. In this context, household food consumption constitutes a large part of society’s environmental impacts due to the production and solid waste generation stages. Hence, we focus on applying the Life Cycle Assessment to estimate Brasilia’s GHG emissions associated with household food consumption. We have used microdata from the Personal Food Consumption Analysis to address consumption patterns. The life cycle approach relies on the adaptations for Brasilia’s scenario of the inventories available in the databases of Ecoinvent 3.6 Cutoff and Agribalyse 3.0.1. Individuals’ GHG emissions results were classified according to sociodemographic groups and dietary patterns and analyzed through Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results indicate that household food consumption contributes 11,062.39 t CO₂e daily, averaging 5.05 kg CO₂e per capita. Meat consumption accounts for the largest share of emissions (55.27%), followed by beverages (18.78%) and cereals (7.29%). The ANOVA results indicate that individuals living in houses, individuals between 45 and 54 years old, and men have a higher carbon footprint. Therefore, future analyses for potential reduction should incorporate these target groups. Regarding dietary patterns, vegan individuals contribute 3.05 kg CO₂e/day, 59.00% fewer emissions than omnivorous people. The no red meat, pescatarian, and vegetarian diets also imply lower food-related GHG emissions.

As cimenteiras são responsáveis por aproximadamente 3% das emissões mundiais de Gases de Efeito Estufa (GEE) e por aproximadamente 5% das emissões de dióxido de carbono (CO2). Uma das alternativas utilizadas para reduzir as emissões de GEE na indústria cimenteira é o uso de combustíveis alternativos por meio do coprocessamento de Resíduos Sólidos (RS) e da utilização de biomassa. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar a mitigação das emissões de GEE de um cimenteira no Distrito Federal, baseado na utilização de combustíveis alternativos, tendo como foco o coprocessamento de RS no processo produtivo do cimento. A metodologia utilizada foi a Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) com a categoria de impacto “mudanças climáticas”. Concluiu-se que, dentre os cenários analisados, aquele correspondente à utilização de 70% de coque de petróleo e 30% de Resíduos Sólidos Agrossilvopastoris (RSA) é a melhor alternativa para a geração de calor nos fornos de clínquer do ponto de vista de emissões de GEE.