Call for papers

https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/328984/advances-in-lct-methodologies-and-tools-for-sustainability-assessment-of-municipal-and-challenging-waste-management

Advances in LCT methodologies and tools for sustainability assessment of municipal and challenging waste management

Submission deadline: 31 December 2026

The special issue focuses on Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) tools and methodologies - Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) - as well as Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EEIO) and combination of this with economic models - which allow comparison between alternative Waste and Circular Economy scenarios. Both methodological developments and case studies providing broadly applicable insights are within the scope of this Special Issue.

Most current waste and resource management schemes still lack a holistic approach that can cover all the sustainability aspects of the whole chain. Moreover, most WM solutions could be integrated with other sectors in society, mainly those of energy, carbon capture, transport, materials, and chemicals production.

In this framework, the management of challenging streams (like sanitary, chemical, and mineral waste) requires advanced tools, able to provide reliable (accurate and quantitative) life cycle sustainability assessment methods. Digital technologies (blockchain, IoT, bigdata and AI) could strongly support LCT tools. Additionally, environmental outcomes should ideally be accompanied by socio-economic indicators to understand the implications for industry competitiveness or stakeholder groups affected by the solutions.

This Special Issue addresses the latest developments in the area, with a special attention to the new tools that can be integrated with a conventional life cycle approach, providing frontier knowledge on the topics.

The Issue invites cutting-edge research, reviews, and case studies that address recent progress and future directions in sustainability assessment of waste management schemes and options. It would like to provide a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at unlocking the full potential of new tools and approaches for sustainability assessment of challenging WM.

The main topics will be:

1) Advanced LCT tools for challenging waste management

LCT tools and methodologies (LCA, LCC, S-LCA) for quantitative assessment of municipal and industrial waste management scenarios.

LCT tools and methodologies for the management of specific challenging waste streams (e.g., sanitary waste; chemical waste; mineral waste).

LCT tools and methodologies for specific waste technologies and their integration into connected systems (e.g., transport; biorefineries; carbon capture storage and utilization).

Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Manufacturing.

2) Digitalization for sustainability assessment of waste management

Digital technologies for LCA: integrating blockchain, IoT, bigdata and AI into LCAs.

Open-source tools and scripts for improved LCT for waste management

3) New approaches and tools for sustainability assessment of WM

Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Manufacturing.

Application of quantitative tools to support (Waste and Circular Economy) policy impact assessment.

Combined use of Environmentally Extended Input-Output (IO), LCA, and/or economic models for assessment of waste & Circular Economy.

Integration of Planetary Boundaries with LCA (Absolute Environmental Sustainability Assessment).

Prospective LCM tools and methodologies for emerging technologies for WM and resource optimization.

Guest editors:

Filomena Ardolino

University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy

Lidia Lombardi

Università Cusano, Rome, Italy

Lucia Rigamonti

Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Manuscript submission information:

Please refer to the Guide for authors to prepare your manuscript. When submitting your manuscript please select the article type “VSI: LCT tools for WM”. Please, submit the manuscript in the form of full-length article, short communication, or literature review. All manuscripts for this special issue will be subject to standard rules for peer-reviewed papers, with reviews provided by at least two international experts.

The journal’s submission platform (Editorial Manager®) will be available to receive submissions for this special issue from 02 February 2026 and the deadline for paper submission is 31 December 2026. 

For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact the Executive Guest Editor Filomena Ardolino via filomena.ardolino@unicampania.it.

Keywords:

LCA OR LCC OR S-LCA

AND

Absolute Environmental Sustainability OR Extended Input-Output OR Open-source tools​