COVID-19 induced changes in residual municipal waste management in provincial territories of the Marche Region (Italy): flow analysis and environmental assessment

The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to pre-crisis waste management systems. In this study, two sequential scenarios were identified and compared to investigate the quantitative and environmental impacts of COVID-19 induced changes in the generation and management of residual municipal waste (RMW) in two provincial territories (PTPU, PTMC) of the Marche region (Central Italy, Adriatic Sea side). The pandemic implied, in 2020 (COVID-19 scenario), quantitative reductions in RMW compared to the preceding year, 2019 (Pre-COVID-19 scenario), which were limited to −3.9 and −1.9% in PTPU and PTMC, respectively. Life cycle assessment (LCA) results showed that adapted RMW management practices in 2020 (COVID-19 scenario) improved all the considered environmental indicators in PTMC, compared to the preceding year, 2019 (Pre-COVID-19 scenario), and most of them in PTPU, with the exception of climate change (CC), human toxicity, non-cancer (HTnc), and eutrophication, marine (Em). The hypothetical option of waste-to-energy (WtE) for the RMW, originally destined for direct landfilling in 2020 (COVID-19 scenario), would have represented a safe and environmentally sound option in terms of health protection and CC indicator.