Like many populated urban agglomerations in Africa, Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, faces several challenges to manage its exponentially growing Municipal Solid Waste. With its 12, 000, 000 people daily generating 7800 tons of Municipal Solid waste, the city still struggles with basic services such as waste collection and sanitary landfill. This causes major social, environmental and health related issues. With the aim of contributing to the implementation of a better management system in Kinshasa, this study evaluates the environmental impact and the cost of the existing waste management framework and proposes 6 alternative scenarios. Each scenario attempts to optimize Greenhouse gas emissions and cost, using the Life Cycle Assessment approach. Results show that the current municipal solid waste management in Kinshasa city emits 640,673 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year and costs a total of 17, 776, 169.78USD yearly. Focusing on increasing waste collection coverage and recycling activities in the proposed 6 scenarios, scenario 4 where all municipal solid waste is collected, produces 4,042,402 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year and costs 143, 296, 983.4 yearly. In scenario 7, considered the most optimized management model for Kinshasa in this study, municipal solid waste is valorized through different treatment processes and atmospheric pollution reaches 2,835,491 tons of CO₂ equivalent yearly, with a management cost of 152, 790, 779.4 USD/year. This study finds that the optimization of the Municipal Solid Waste management system in Kinshasa city causes the atmospheric pollution in terms of CO2 equivalent to decrease by half, when all waste is collected. Landfill diversion rate reaches up to 70%, but the overall MSW management cost increases by almost eight times as much as the current operational cost. The optimization of the management system is done by increasing waste collection coverage and implementing diverse streams of waste valorization. Despite the wide use of the Life Cycle Assessment method in waste management and decision making, this method has not yet been, to the best knowledge of the authors, applied in estimating Greenhouse gas emissions and cost of the Municipal Solid Waste in the specific context of Kinshasa city.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management poses substantial challenges in rapidly urbanizing areas, with implications for both the environment and public health. This study focuses on the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, investigating whether the presence or absence of solid waste collection services results in varying health and economic impacts, and additionally, seeking to establish a correlation between residing in proximity to dumpsites and the prevalence of diseases like malaria and typhoid, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the health implications tied to waste exposure. Health data were collected through survey questionnaires, and the geospatial distribution of 19 dumpsites was analyzed using Google Earth Pro 7.3.1 for satellite imagery and GIS software 10.3.1 to map dumpsites and define 1 km buffer zones around the largest dumpsites for household sampling. Statistical analyses were conducted using R Version 4.2.3, employing Chi-square tests for disease prevalence and logistic regression to assess associations between waste management practices and health outcomes. A multivariate regression was used to evaluate correlations between discomfort symptoms (e.g., nasal and eye irritation) and waste activities. The geospatial analysis revealed significant variation in dumpsite size and location, with larger dumpsites near water bodies and flood-prone areas. The study contributes valuable insights into waste-related health risks, emphasizing the need for improved waste management policies in rapidly urbanizing areas like Kinshasa. The socio-demographic analysis reveals distinct traits within the surveyed populations of two communes, Bandalungwa (Bandal) and Bumbu. Bumbu, characterized by larger open dumpsites and limited waste collection services, exhibits a higher prevalence of certain diseases, particularly typhoid fever, and malaria. This discrepancy is statistically significant (p < 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁶), suggesting a potential link between waste exposure and disease prevalence. In Bandal, self-waste collection is a high risk of exposure to typhoid (OR = 4.834 and p = 0.00001), but the implementation of a waste collection service shows protective effect (OR = 0.206 and p = 0.00001). The lack of waste collection services in Bumbu increases the risk of exposure, although not significantly (OR = 2.268 and p = 0.08). Key findings indicate that waste disposal methods significantly differ between Bandal and Bumbu. Bumbu’s reliance on burning and dumping creates environments conducive to disease vectors, contributing to elevated disease transmission risks. However, an in-depth correlation analysis reveals that specific waste management practices, such as burning, burying, and open dumping, do not exhibit statistically significant associations with disease prevalence, underlining the complexity of disease dynamics. This study contributes valuable insights into the importance for urban public health, particularly in rapidly urbanizing cities like Kinshasa, where inadequate waste management exacerbates health risks. By investigating the correlation between proximity to unregulated dumpsites and the prevalence of diseases such as malaria and typhoid fever, the research underscores the urgent need for targeted waste management policies. The stark health disparities between Bandal, with better waste services, and Bumbu, where services are lacking, highlight the protective effect of organized waste collection. These findings suggest that expanding public waste services and enforcing stricter regulations on waste disposal could reduce disease prevalence in vulnerable areas. Additionally, the study supports integrating waste management into urban planning as a critical public health measure. Its evidence-based approach offers valuable insights for policymakers in Kinshasa and other cities facing similar challenges, emphasizing the broader health implications of environmental governance in urban settings.